What's the rarest or most unusual computer-related item do you own?

william degnan billdegnan at gmail.com
Sat Jan 28 19:51:54 CST 2017


On Jan 28, 2017 8:40 PM, "Chuck Guzis" <cclist at sydex.com> wrote:
>
> On 01/28/2017 05:12 PM, Douglas Taylor wrote:
> > I have a certificate that my father was given in 1957 for training on
> > a Honeywell Datamatic 1000 computer.
> >
> > Here is a summary of this 'advance' in computer technology from the
> > ACM:
> >
> > The DATAmatic 1000 (D-1000) is a high-capacity electronic
> > data-processing system designed specifically for application to the
> > increasingly complex problems and procedures of present-day
> > business. The system incorporates significant new systems techniques,
> > as well as several basically new component developments. One of the
> > outstanding features of the D-1000 is its ability to feed information
> > from magnetic tape into the central processor at a sustained rate of
> > 60,000 decimal-digits per second, and to deliver data after
> > processing back to magnetic tape at this same rate. The operational
> > speed of the central processor maintains full compatibility with the
> > high speed of information transfer. Consequently, the difficulties
> > caused by programs which are either tape limited or processing-time
> > limited do not arise in the majority of commercial applications of
> > this system.
>
> Doug, you can probably re-live part of your dad's experience.  There are
> some Datamatic 1000 manuals on bitsavers:
>
> http://bitsavers.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de/pdf/honeywell/datamatic_1000/
>
> Big, wide tape reels.
>
> --Chuck
>

I am pretty sure I have the first print of that manual, but I thought
Datamatic was a pre-Burroughs machine not Honeywell...I am not home to
check, if you'd like me to I can Monday.  That's the base 10 system,
right?  I also have some orig decimal counter tubes IIRC too.  I suppose
that all qualifies as pretty rare.  Or I am confusing with a different,
similarly - named system.
Bill


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