27 Feb
2024
27 Feb
'24
10:40 a.m.
On 2/27/24 10:10, ben via cctalk wrote:
On 2024-02-27 9:20 a.m., CAREY SCHUG via cctalk
wrote:
> It's not a cassette, but the PB-440 (Pitney-Bowes), renamed Raytheon
> 440 and its upgrade the raytheon 520 had a large reel paper tape with
> a bidirectional read and an "operating system" Load the os, say we
> want to run fortran, spin down to fortran, read the program in on 80
> column cards (probably 2 pass, I don'trecall), automatically reload
> the monitor when done, read and execute the program from cards.
> Frequently used programs could be on the OS paper tape reel.
>
> btw, that computer was user level microcode. multiple "machine"
> definitions, with typical 24 bit word, one instruction set optimized
> for fortran execution, one for fortran compilation, etc (don't
> remember exactly, as I only programmed in the microcode of mostly 2
> micro instructions per word).
Is the "PB" Pitney-Bowes or Packard-Bell? I note that only because that
Raytheon bought out Packard-Bell's computer operation and re-dubbed
their models. So a Packard-Bell PB 250 became the Raytheon PB 250.
As regards the 440, it's on my short list of interesting "hybrid"
computers of the 1960s, which was a hot topic then: It was part of the
TRICE setup:
http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/raytheon/trice/TRICE_440_Oct64.pdf
--Chuck