Historical computers...
- TheGreenGoblin
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Historical computers...
I know that there are one of two here who might find this interesting and who may have suggestions of their own. I haven't included abacusses, tabulators (with a hat tip to Martin Hollerith) and so on and have arbitrarily started after the Second World war thus excluding pioneers from all over the world including luminaries such as Luigi Federico Menabrea, Joseph Marie Jacquard, Charles Babbage, Ada Lovelace (whose name graced the computer language I used to program in) and so many others including the Polish bombas and Turing et al's bombes, Von Neumann and so on.
Being an Anglophile I would like to start with the Manchester Mark 1.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchester_Mark_1
Being an Anglophile I would like to start with the Manchester Mark 1.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchester_Mark_1
Though you remain
Convinced
"To be alive
You must have somewhere
To go
Your destination remains
Elusive."
Convinced
"To be alive
You must have somewhere
To go
Your destination remains
Elusive."
- TheGreenGoblin
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Re: Historical computers...
Herman Hollerith of course!TheGreenGoblin wrote: ↑Sun Oct 04, 2020 12:14 pmI haven't included abacusses, tabulators (with a hat tip to Martin Hollerith)
Being an Anglophile I would like to start with the Manchester Mark 1.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchester_Mark_1
Though you remain
Convinced
"To be alive
You must have somewhere
To go
Your destination remains
Elusive."
Convinced
"To be alive
You must have somewhere
To go
Your destination remains
Elusive."
- TheGreenGoblin
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Re: Historical computers...
Teashops and confectionaries...
The first commercial/business computer.
Though you remain
Convinced
"To be alive
You must have somewhere
To go
Your destination remains
Elusive."
Convinced
"To be alive
You must have somewhere
To go
Your destination remains
Elusive."
- TheGreenGoblin
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Re: Historical computers...
Though you remain
Convinced
"To be alive
You must have somewhere
To go
Your destination remains
Elusive."
Convinced
"To be alive
You must have somewhere
To go
Your destination remains
Elusive."
Re: Historical computers...
CALL 360.
System 7.
System 7.
- TheGreenGoblin
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Re: Historical computers...
Though you remain
Convinced
"To be alive
You must have somewhere
To go
Your destination remains
Elusive."
Convinced
"To be alive
You must have somewhere
To go
Your destination remains
Elusive."
- TheGreenGoblin
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Re: Historical computers...
System 7, a machine for the "real time wallahs" in industrial control with most of the development occurring on a System 360 and the binary object code being transferred to System 7.
I did some similar analog system control (hydro lab) monitoring work in 6502 assembler on a 64 KB BBC micro linked by UART port to an IBM AS/400.
Though you remain
Convinced
"To be alive
You must have somewhere
To go
Your destination remains
Elusive."
Convinced
"To be alive
You must have somewhere
To go
Your destination remains
Elusive."
- ian16th
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Re: Historical computers...
Host Program Preparation Facility, HPPF, for the S/7 was available on the IBM S/360 and IBM 1800.TheGreenGoblin wrote: ↑Sun Oct 04, 2020 6:18 pmSystem 7, a machine for the "real time wallahs" in industrial control with most of the development occurring on a System 360 and the binary object code being transferred to System 7.
Program Prep could be done on a S/7 if it had sufficient memory and a disk drive.
Program preparation was often a much bigger task than the application that the S/7 was bought to do.
Program compilation and Link Editing are both intensive tasks.
Cynicism improves with age
- TheGreenGoblin
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Re: Historical computers...
Those IBM series history videos are superb.
Fro the who want to live the halcyon IBM System/370 years there is the Hecules emulator...
The Hercules System/370, ESA/390, and z/Architecture Emulator
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hercules_(emulator)
Fro the who want to live the halcyon IBM System/370 years there is the Hecules emulator...
The Hercules System/370, ESA/390, and z/Architecture Emulator
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hercules_(emulator)
Though you remain
Convinced
"To be alive
You must have somewhere
To go
Your destination remains
Elusive."
Convinced
"To be alive
You must have somewhere
To go
Your destination remains
Elusive."
- TheGreenGoblin
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Re: Historical computers...
As a South African chauvinist I must point out that one of the LEO's early programmers ended up living and working in South Africa.TheGreenGoblin wrote: ↑Sun Oct 04, 2020 2:29 pmTeashops and confectionaries...
The first commercial/business computer.
LEO
Leo Fantl
Harry Brindley is a Saffer, now living in the USA...
https://slapphappe.files.wordpress.com/ ... letter.jpg
Though you remain
Convinced
"To be alive
You must have somewhere
To go
Your destination remains
Elusive."
Convinced
"To be alive
You must have somewhere
To go
Your destination remains
Elusive."
- TheGreenGoblin
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Re: Historical computers...
Talk of the IBM System 7 brought to mind the IBM System 1 which in turn brought to mind Don Estridge RIPian16th wrote: ↑Sun Oct 04, 2020 6:30 pmHost Program Preparation Facility, HPPF, for the S/7 was available on the IBM S/360 and IBM 1800.TheGreenGoblin wrote: ↑Sun Oct 04, 2020 6:18 pmSystem 7, a machine for the "real time wallahs" in industrial control with most of the development occurring on a System 360 and the binary object code being transferred to System 7.
Program Prep could be done on a S/7 if it had sufficient memory and a disk drive.
Program preparation was often a much bigger task than the application that the S/7 was bought to do.
Program compilation and Link Editing are both intensive tasks.
Don Estridge
Delta Air Lines Flight 191
Though you remain
Convinced
"To be alive
You must have somewhere
To go
Your destination remains
Elusive."
Convinced
"To be alive
You must have somewhere
To go
Your destination remains
Elusive."
- ian16th
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Re: Historical computers...
TheGreenGoblin wrote: ↑Sun Oct 04, 2020 7:15 pm
Talk of the IBM System 7 brought to mind the IBM System Series/1 which in turn brought to mind Don Estridge RIP
Don Estridge
Delta Air Lines Flight 191
Cynicism improves with age
- ExSp33db1rd
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Re: Historical computers...
I still have my E6B Dead Reckoning Navigational Computer mark 4. Made by the London Name Plate Manufacturing Company.
Well, It's labelled Computer, so it must be one !
Well, It's labelled Computer, so it must be one !
- ian16th
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Re: Historical computers...
Too true.ExSp33db1rd wrote: ↑Sun Oct 04, 2020 8:49 pmI still have my E6B Dead Reckoning Navigational Computer mark 4. Made by the London Name Plate Manufacturing Company.
Well, It's labelled Computer, so it must be one !
The Lincoln's I worked on at Lindholme, c1954, had a Bomb Sight Computer!
Cynicism improves with age
- TheGreenGoblin
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Re: Historical computers...
Tis a mechanical analogue computer tis true.ExSp33db1rd wrote: ↑Sun Oct 04, 2020 8:49 pmI still have my E6B Dead Reckoning Navigational Computer mark 4. Made by the London Name Plate Manufacturing Company.
Well, It's labelled Computer, so it must be one !
Though you remain
Convinced
"To be alive
You must have somewhere
To go
Your destination remains
Elusive."
Convinced
"To be alive
You must have somewhere
To go
Your destination remains
Elusive."
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Re: Historical computers...
Harwell had a LEO - or something very close to one - and my then fiancée wrote programs for it in '58 or '59 it must have been. Being low-priority - fast breeder reactors were still a bit in the future - she could only get machine time after 22:00, so we used to schlep in together for a few hours whilst the programs ran. Nice and quiet & not much to do - well, not computing, anyway.
Eventually skirted staff were banned from the computer suite: the fashion was then for wide-skirted 'frocks' with lots of petticoats, and so much static electricity was there that the machine frequently crashed. (Crashed quite often without human interference, for that matter) And so, since she was of the persuasion which would not wear trousers, our happy midnight hours ceased.
Other abiding memory was the ferrite core store - all 16k of it - which occupied a portable building about 20 ft by 10 ft.
Eventually skirted staff were banned from the computer suite: the fashion was then for wide-skirted 'frocks' with lots of petticoats, and so much static electricity was there that the machine frequently crashed. (Crashed quite often without human interference, for that matter) And so, since she was of the persuasion which would not wear trousers, our happy midnight hours ceased.
Other abiding memory was the ferrite core store - all 16k of it - which occupied a portable building about 20 ft by 10 ft.