25 Apr
2023
25 Apr
'23
2:02 p.m.
On 4/25/23 10:46, Paul Berger via cctalk wrote:
IBM did develop a machine to thread the wires through
cores. The cores
where held in place in a tray by vacuum and wires threaded through by
hollow needles to quote the book IBM's Early Computers, "When introduced
in 1959, this core threading machine reduced the time to thread X and Y
wires in a 64x64 plane from 25 hours to 12 minutes" From that quote I
am guessing that the sense and inhibit lines where still wired by hand.
An alternative was to use a simplified threading scheme. I'm still
amazed to this day that CDC ECS worked reliably:
https://ed-thelen.org/comp-hist/images/50690729-CDC-ExtendedCoreStorage.pdf
--Chuck