Saw one...what is that? TI printing terminal Silent 700.

-----Original Message----- From: Barry A. Watzman <Watzman(a)ibm.net> To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> Date: Tuesday, 15 December 1998 12:34 Subject: RE: Saw one...what is that? TI printing terminal Silent 700. The silent 700's were mostly used for time-sharing remote computing in the 70's. Some models (there were quite a few of them) had built-in modems (acoustic 300 baud for the most part). They were also used as local consoles (keyboard/printer). I believe that the printers were 30 chars/sec, but they may have been somewhat faster, perhaps as much as 120 cps. For their day, they were considered high-end and very desirable. IIRC, we had those in the VOLMET broadcast booth in the then Sydney Flight Service Centre, (Circa 1982). They were running off a Ferranti Message Switching System (dedicated 24(?)bit mini/mainframe) at 300 baud, which made them a good deal quicker than the Siemens electromechanical teleprinters that were used elsewhere in the FSC. They were used in the booth because they were QUIET and didn't drown out the announcer when the VOLMET broadcast was on. The old Siemens machines were designed for 50 or 75, but I think they ran them at 100, which was just about the physical limit, and NOISY, even in a sound deadening cabinet. Footnote: I also collect teleprinter machines if anyone in Oz has any they want to part with....... Cheers Geoff Computer Room Internet Cafe Port Pirie South Australia. netcafe(a)pirie.mtx.net.au