8 Oct
2022
8 Oct
'22
12:23 a.m.
On Oct 7, 2022, at 7:14 PM, ben via cctalk
<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
On 2022-10-07 1:09 p.m., paul.kimpel--- via cctalk wrote:
I don't know about replacement; that would be tricky because the serial nature of the
memory might well be embedded all over the logic design.
There are some hybrids, though. One I know of is the Dutch ARMAC (1956). That's a
machine with drum main memory (3584 34-bit words), but it has two 32-word core memory
units, one is a 32-word general purpose memory, and one holds the most recently referenced
track of the drum.
This is the machine on which Dijkstrao wrote the first implementation of his Shortest Path
algorithm, familiar to all networking people.
paul
We'd all like to see the ALGO compiler, but
be forewarned -- it's something like 14 passes on paper tape, with intermediate
results punched on paper tape. I understand it's a bit more convenient to use if you
have magnetic tape drives, but it's still going to be slow -- there's only so much
you can do with 2K words of memory.
Trying to hide the fact the drum makes it slow.
Did any one ever replace the drum with core memory, on the early serial computers?