On Sat, 26 Jun 2010 18:18:12 -0500, flipper wrote:


Depends. Does it fit in a Data General Nova 2/10? I have one 'maxed'
out with the full 64k byte core memory but it's always nice to have a
spare

It was operational last time I turned it on some 20 years ago but my
MicroPDP-11 saw more practical use.


Dan, U.S. Air Force, retired

To be honest I have no idea what it is out of.

I didn't expect you did. I was kidding

I'd have to look at it
again, but I think it has 8 planes of 64 cores. If you are interested
I'll take a picture and send it to you.

Sure. Post a pic. I'm sure everyone else would be interested too.

I wouldn't mind having one to go with my tube 'plug-in computer
module' but it's not a 'must have' sort of thing.

I also have a single plane from
some other device. I can't imagine having to thread 4 wires through each
core. If memory serves they were X, Y, sense and write.

As size went down (density went up) it was an early candidate for
automation and got it.

Seems simple enough an idea, doesn't it? It's all that dern work.

I've become fascinated with the difference between 'good ideas' vs
what it takes to then build them and, on that theme, take a look at
this 'large screen plasma TV'.

http://www.earlytelevision.org/bell_labs.html

Same basic scanning pixel principle as today but, heaven's to Betsy,
the work needed to build that monstrosity.


I used to have two drum memories from a calculator the size of a GI
desk. If I remember right they were 8" or so in diameter by almost 3
feet long. The console had a gazillion columns of buttons. I'm not sure
what I was going to do with the drums, but I was in high school and they
were fun to play with.

Some things not worth keeping were the dynamic RAM chips from a Z-80A
computer I built on an S-100 bus in 1979 or so. I do keep a few older
(pre L or LS) ICs to play with on occasion.

I think I've still got a bag of 1103s around here somewhere. I was, at
the time, hoping to build my own computer but it was just too much
money, not to mention slow going. I did get the ALU wired up but then
I ran across the 'junked' Nova 2-10, which I repaired, and with 2
1.25Meg platters that was way more than I could do on my own in spare
time. It took a dedicated breaker to power the dern thing, though, and
the room got rather toasty in short order even with the air running
full blast. My house just wasn't built to be a 'computing center'

Not to mention my house wasn't an oil field either, so the 'software'
that came with it was of limited use, "word processing" and
"spreadsheet" were yet to be coined, and there weren't all that many
'video games' for Nova 2/10s at the local Walmart.

On the other hand I had a full fledged multi-user, multi tasking, real
time operating system so I could back up NASA should the need arise

My basic processor would have been 'better', though, because I was
building it with on-the-fly switchable micro-code so it could 'become'
almost any processor model.

Oh my, writeable control store. Temporarily popular quite some time
ago, about the time of bit-slice machines. 2900 and COPS machines.

It drove my wife nuts that I couldn't throw away a serviceable item
just because I didn't have an immediate use for it.

It had to be serviceable? Hehe

I never was able to
convince her a past time is something one wants to do and a hobby is
something one HAS to do. You know, like breathing.

I understand.

Oh yeah.