olddataman
Experienced Member
Now I realize that I am almost ancient by comparison with most of you, but I simply can't accept the idea that the computer industry began with the development of the Intel 8008. My first hands on experience with a commercially developed digital computer was as an Air Force instructor, teaching theory and maintenance of the (then classified) AN/FST-2 computer which was the system at each radar site in the North American Ai\r Defense network. These were the sites that fed their processed data from the half dozen types of search and tracking radars into the ANFSQ-7 (etc.) Sage System computers. I had been employed prior to my AF hitch ass a technician, bilding nuclear research instrumentation from scratch, which was primarily "wired program" digital computers. My first general purpose digital computer was the LGP-30, a vacuum tube computer about the size of an office desk and costing $39,000. In my opinion it was the first true minicomputer, first deliveries in about 1956. Between then (1956) and about 1976 i worked directly or, as part of my duties) made myself familiar with just about every computer commercially available in the price range between $18,000 and $250,000 that used binary arithmetiic, was "word" oriented, had good, useful instruction sets and was suitable for the kind of work our group was engaged in. We applied computerrs raanging from basic PDP-8's to SDS (XDS) Sigma-7's. and later, used a wide range of minicomputers in a variety of applications.
I guess I would have to say that my favorite of all the machines I learned in those days the SDS 9xxx series. They consisted of 7 models. the 92, 910,920, 925, 930 9300 and 940. the SDS 92 was a 12 bit machine (word length) while all oftheotherswere 24 bit word length. Our group was chartered to develop construct, program, install and maintain real-time systems for data acqusition, contol and process data on a real-time basis from research facilities. During my five years with that group, we implimentat about eight different systems using SDS 9xxxseries, three systems using SDS Sigma series (two Sigma 7's and a Sigma 2) and about five or six more using other computers such as the PDP-8 and the CCC DDP-316 (later becoming Honeywell computer product). The SDS 910 and 920 were the most fun because they werethe most used, easiest to maintain and most reliable. I learned those computers so well that I could actually trouble-shoot them from the logic equstions so that I knew exactly what printed circuit logic card I had to find the bad component on before I actually went to the installation to see the trouble in acton by watching the console lights and looking with a scope to actually "see" the trouble occuring.
There were no floppy disks, hard discs, or 3M-type tapes in those days. No "operating systems", no peripheral Drivers, , no built-in crt displays, etc. Application software was written in-house. The only "standard" peripherals were Teletype input and output ot the console, standard IBM compatale mag. tape drives, fixed head per track disk or drum memory systems. Main memory was typically from 4096 words to 32k words of 24 bit memory. The manufacturers usually supplied a moderate to good Assembler, a Fortran sompiler and often a set of system maintenance routine Maintenanre routines. Most "standardized" trouble-shooters, translation routines and a wide varietyher software became available from the inevitible "User Groups" that were formed by customers themselves. I was Chairman of the Standing Committee on Hardware of the SDSS User Group for about five years.
There were CLONES in those dayss also. But that is another story and I'll make another posting on the subject soon.
Is noone but me interested in these old machines? I;m not very interested in the big, iron, Systems Analyst dominated and Operator Controlled Data Center tye EDP machines like those made by IBM and Unvac, mostly. Just because I was brought up in the "Hands-On" environment. But when you consider that I'm just a lowly technician and I can name at least 25 or 30 makers of computers that produced at least three to five different models of "my kind" of computers, you can see that there are at least as many of them as the totao of micro omputers now.
Ray
I guess I would have to say that my favorite of all the machines I learned in those days the SDS 9xxx series. They consisted of 7 models. the 92, 910,920, 925, 930 9300 and 940. the SDS 92 was a 12 bit machine (word length) while all oftheotherswere 24 bit word length. Our group was chartered to develop construct, program, install and maintain real-time systems for data acqusition, contol and process data on a real-time basis from research facilities. During my five years with that group, we implimentat about eight different systems using SDS 9xxxseries, three systems using SDS Sigma series (two Sigma 7's and a Sigma 2) and about five or six more using other computers such as the PDP-8 and the CCC DDP-316 (later becoming Honeywell computer product). The SDS 910 and 920 were the most fun because they werethe most used, easiest to maintain and most reliable. I learned those computers so well that I could actually trouble-shoot them from the logic equstions so that I knew exactly what printed circuit logic card I had to find the bad component on before I actually went to the installation to see the trouble in acton by watching the console lights and looking with a scope to actually "see" the trouble occuring.
There were no floppy disks, hard discs, or 3M-type tapes in those days. No "operating systems", no peripheral Drivers, , no built-in crt displays, etc. Application software was written in-house. The only "standard" peripherals were Teletype input and output ot the console, standard IBM compatale mag. tape drives, fixed head per track disk or drum memory systems. Main memory was typically from 4096 words to 32k words of 24 bit memory. The manufacturers usually supplied a moderate to good Assembler, a Fortran sompiler and often a set of system maintenance routine Maintenanre routines. Most "standardized" trouble-shooters, translation routines and a wide varietyher software became available from the inevitible "User Groups" that were formed by customers themselves. I was Chairman of the Standing Committee on Hardware of the SDSS User Group for about five years.
There were CLONES in those dayss also. But that is another story and I'll make another posting on the subject soon.
Is noone but me interested in these old machines? I;m not very interested in the big, iron, Systems Analyst dominated and Operator Controlled Data Center tye EDP machines like those made by IBM and Unvac, mostly. Just because I was brought up in the "Hands-On" environment. But when you consider that I'm just a lowly technician and I can name at least 25 or 30 makers of computers that produced at least three to five different models of "my kind" of computers, you can see that there are at least as many of them as the totao of micro omputers now.
Ray