Techsurvivors

Archives => 2007 => Topic started by: Texas Mac Man on January 22, 2007, 10:36:31 AM

Title: CAN YOU GUESS WHAT THIS IS ?
Post by: Texas Mac Man on January 22, 2007, 10:36:31 AM
It's 50 years old and used on a computer.  


 

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It's a 5MB hard disk in 1956....  
 
In  September 1956 IBM launched the 305 RAMAC (Random Access Method of Accounting and Control) , the first computer with a hard disk drive (HDD). The HDD weighed over a ton and stored 5MB of data.  

More info on the RAMAC
Makes you appreciate your 4 GB USB thumb drive, doesn't it?
Title: CAN YOU GUESS WHAT THIS IS ?
Post by: gunug on January 22, 2007, 10:42:04 AM
I had a DEC PDP-11 in my work area at KU in the late 70's/early 80's with a 5MB hard drive with 12" platters that weighed enough to crack the concrete floor when the hanger hardware failed.  This thing wouldn't work inside the rack (too much heat) but would work with the drive pulled out on the hangers.  I bet that it weighed 80 pounds at least!
Title: CAN YOU GUESS WHAT THIS IS ?
Post by: jcarter on January 22, 2007, 10:48:46 AM
Heavens, I too remember these IBM things.  They were aboard the research ship that I was on, and when the weather got rough or the temperature got too hot(south) for the AC to handle, we had to shut the whole shebang down.  
I do have pictures, slides, if I could ever find them.
Jane
Title: CAN YOU GUESS WHAT THIS IS ?
Post by: jwboyd on January 22, 2007, 12:42:51 PM
When my son went to work for HP (mid 1980s). a one-megabyte memory module was carried on their books as a capital asset worth $1,000.
Title: CAN YOU GUESS WHAT THIS IS ?
Post by: () on January 22, 2007, 01:05:45 PM
imagine having that on your desktop, and then trying to format it?
Title: CAN YOU GUESS WHAT THIS IS ?
Post by: Gregg on January 22, 2007, 01:08:45 PM
Wow!

I remember the air conditioned computer room at college. I'm sure many here have similar memories. The world is getting smaller!
Title: CAN YOU GUESS WHAT THIS IS ?
Post by: Texas Mac Man on January 22, 2007, 01:49:52 PM
I graduated from the University of Texas - Austin in 1958. At that time, the entire Engineering School only had one computer - a Heathkit analog computer that students purchased with donations and assembled. The computer was used for stress analysis. As engineering students, we had our slide rules & our fingers/toes (& brain) for computing.

The Administration department did have some IBM computers that were used for keeping students records, class assignments, grades, etc.

If you could equate you brain's memory into MB or GB, I wonder how many MB/GBs of memory we have? I know one thing, I must have a few bad blocks & my memory access time seems to get longer. Maybe my hard drive, or brain, is getting full, or some Preference files or Permission files have become corrupted.
Title: CAN YOU GUESS WHAT THIS IS ?
Post by: () on January 22, 2007, 01:59:12 PM
and yet people still complain... nono.gif

 go figure! Thinking.gif

Computer technology has improved greatly, but people are always wanting more, better, faster, virus free, eass OS's and programs to use... Thinking.gif
Title: CAN YOU GUESS WHAT THIS IS ?
Post by: D76 on January 22, 2007, 02:18:31 PM
QUOTE(Nutterbutter @ Jan 22 2007, 02:59 PM) [snapback]116683[/snapback]
. . . people are always wanting more, better, faster, virus free, eass OS's and programs to use...
My OSs have been virus free since 1989.  biggrin.gif
Title: CAN YOU GUESS WHAT THIS IS ?
Post by: jguti on January 22, 2007, 06:49:25 PM
Mama moose,

I don't suppose this is something you would ship for free to anyone who needed one. tongue.gif
Title: CAN YOU GUESS WHAT THIS IS ?
Post by: () on January 22, 2007, 07:38:30 PM
Good one jguti... Devilish2.gif
Title: CAN YOU GUESS WHAT THIS IS ?
Post by: RHPConsult on January 22, 2007, 10:52:35 PM
Wish I could find a picture of the Xerox machine I leased for my office in the early '60s. It must have weighed 500 lbs.

It was L shaped, about the size of a large fridge, lying on its side.

Since it replaced mimeograph as well as that purple "Ditto" duplication, everyone thought it was wonderful . . . even though it broke about twice a month. But, nevermind, we had a Xerox service guy assigned to just our building, if you can believe it, so we were seldom really inconvenienced.

Hard to believe!
Title: CAN YOU GUESS WHAT THIS IS ?
Post by: MamaMoose on January 22, 2007, 11:54:41 PM
My first computer at Westinghouse Atomic Power was an IBM 650. In 1955, the only memory we had was a 1000 word rotating magnetic drum. It had a bi-quinary (5+5) basis, punched cards for a crude memeory, and an 8080 accounting machine with a plug board for printing output. There was no symbolic language (assembly, higher level, etc.)  just binary machine language. It was in a room of about 20' by 25' with a false floor to carry all the cables. The vacuum tubes gave off so much heat that a 5 ton equivalent air conditioning system was necessary.

With that machine we performed nuclear reactor physics calculations and designed the reactors for nuclear submarines!! Its a wonder they worked. Now 52 years later, I carry around a 4 GB USB Flash Drive and a laptop that is  roughly 1, 000.000 times more powerful and it weighs just 5+ pounds.

Just think the revolution in computers came about because of the US space program which drove microchips, software, batterys, circuit design, etc.

Ain't technology grand!

MamaMoose
Title: CAN YOU GUESS WHAT THIS IS ?
Post by: Steve_J on January 23, 2007, 12:36:26 AM
Anyone remember core memory and schmoo (sp) curves? Or SDS computers which became XDS computers which became Xerox computers?
Title: CAN YOU GUESS WHAT THIS IS ?
Post by: D76 on January 23, 2007, 01:52:48 AM
QUOTE(MamaMoose @ Jan 23 2007, 12:54 AM) [snapback]116752[/snapback]
My first computer at Westinghouse Atomic Power was an IBM 650. In 1955, the only memory we had was a 1000 word rotating magnetic drum.
You may have run across on the net the story of Mel, a real programmer,  here and here and here, three of countless copies. Supposedly, it was posted to a usenet site in 1983. It's a terrific story.

The first link above is to a page that's easier to read than the second if free verse is bothersome (and maybe something is changed), with an explanation at the bottom allegedly by the original poster.
QUOTE
[1992 postscript --- the author writes: "The original submission to the net was not in free verse, nor any approximation to it --- it was straight prose style, in non-justified paragraphs. In bouncing around the net it apparently got modified into the `free verse' form now popular. In other words, it got hacked on the net. That seems appropriate, somehow."]
The third one has this at the bottom:
QUOTE
[Posted to USENET by its author, Ed Nather , on 1983-05-21]
I ran a search of "Ed Nather" and came up with a ton of hits.

This link is to an article on the IBM 650.
QUOTE
The IBM 650, on the other hand was designed to be affordable and easy to use. And compared to what else

was available in the late 1950's, the IBM 650 was:

    * cheap: It only cost a half a million dollars.
    * small: It fit in a single room.
    * user friendly: It was programmed in decimal rather than binary.

IBM sold nearly two thousand units of the IBM 650, and it was the first computer to make a significant profit for its manufacturer.
I remember reading years ago about IBM selling two models of the same mainframe, the first being upgradable to the power of the second model, at a cost of thousands of dollars.

It turned out that when the customer forked over the cash, a programmer would work on the computer for hours upgrading it. According to the story, though, all the programmer really did was throw a single switch that had crippled the thing, then waste hours of time.

Who knows if it's true, though I suspect it is. My first VCR was like that. The difference between two models was some dollar figure that I can't recall after 20 years. But the only real difference was one extra button on the otherwise identical remotes that would eject the tape.
Title: CAN YOU GUESS WHAT THIS IS ?
Post by: Gregg on January 23, 2007, 07:35:46 AM
QUOTE(D76 @ Jan 23 2007, 01:52 AM) [snapback]116760[/snapback]
It turned out that when the customer forked over the cash, a programmer would work on the computer for hours upgrading it. According to the story, though, all the programmer really did was throw a single switch that had crippled the thing, then waste hours of time.



...kind of like what happens to your car when you leave it "in the shop" all day.  dry.gif
Title: CAN YOU GUESS WHAT THIS IS ?
Post by: krissel on January 24, 2007, 10:51:19 PM
And now to the other extreme...

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/24/science/...p;partner=MYWAY
Title: CAN YOU GUESS WHAT THIS IS ?
Post by: Frances144 on January 25, 2007, 08:43:23 PM
When I was first let out into the big bad world, I worked in an office that had a Jaquard - it was huge, had its own air-conditioned room.  I was also given a lovely IBM (very nice) to play with.  Lots of DOS!

Then I used a Wang computer - stroppy thing.  I was in charge and kept that thing, god knows how, going along quite smoothly for years.  I used to back-up religiously as I did not trust it to lose just about everything.

I also had one of the first Amstrad (IBM copies).  That was a hoot!

My friend had an Apple and I was so jealous.  But he was rich!

What memories!

Fx