18 Apr
2000
18 Apr
'00
4:42 p.m.
Every flight simulator I worked on in the late '60s to early '70s had these.
Just
before the advent of the mini-computer Link used to build their own computers,
24-bit, 20+cabinet beasties and used drums as main storage. Ours were not very
reliable, requiring resurfacing every couple of years. Several companies came
out with solid-stae replacements and most operators quickly jumped at these.
We still have one of these dinosaurs (minus the drum) but its going out the door
in two months. I won't miss it .... oops...guess thats blasphemous on this
list...
Will Jennings wrote:
Hi,
I think I heard somewhere that magnetic drums are somewhat like core memory,
i.e. they retain their contents when shut off... I believe I read this in
the IBM 704 manual, so I'm not entirely certain that facts about those drums
(8192 36-bit words!) can really be applied to the drums I'm going to be
getting, which are from Vermont Research and are approximately 256K or so..
Also, does anyone know what other computer companies used drums from Vermont
Research? They're for my Interdata 7/32, but I know at least Varian used
Vermont Research drums... any others?
Will J
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