- Joined
- Oct 11, 2016
- Messages
- 3,871
My first computer was a very nice IBM 1130 minicomputer, that I was allowed to use for 1/2 hour each week. It executed instructions at 120K per second and only had 16 Kwords (32 Kbytes memory) It stored characters in 6 bit format.
My big upgrade at University was to go back 8 years to an IBM1620 computer - oh we had a state of the art 370 series M, but the only one I could use with impunity was a 55 KHz resistor-diode logic 1620 with 1.2 Mb hard drives with 7 - 16" platters - by punch card only. Fortran II and assembler. No floating point, no integer multiply.
Computing is nearly free. Memory is nearly free. Programming often crap, because very few know how to write efficient or maintainable code...
But somehow we still manage to build OSes with 200M lines of code.... go figure.
@davidpbest - I scrapped my PDP8i just 10 years ago. I even had an ASR33 to go with....
The truly great hybrid lathes out of Korea are astounding: The motor is built around the spindle, has absolute positioning and no gears whatsoever. The lead screw is completely electronic, and all feeds are by encoders. They can take CNC commands or do manual machining. I cannot afford to ask how much!
My big upgrade at University was to go back 8 years to an IBM1620 computer - oh we had a state of the art 370 series M, but the only one I could use with impunity was a 55 KHz resistor-diode logic 1620 with 1.2 Mb hard drives with 7 - 16" platters - by punch card only. Fortran II and assembler. No floating point, no integer multiply.
Computing is nearly free. Memory is nearly free. Programming often crap, because very few know how to write efficient or maintainable code...
But somehow we still manage to build OSes with 200M lines of code.... go figure.
@davidpbest - I scrapped my PDP8i just 10 years ago. I even had an ASR33 to go with....
The truly great hybrid lathes out of Korea are astounding: The motor is built around the spindle, has absolute positioning and no gears whatsoever. The lead screw is completely electronic, and all feeds are by encoders. They can take CNC commands or do manual machining. I cannot afford to ask how much!