7 Dec
2020
7 Dec
'20
11:50 a.m.
On Mon, 2020-12-07 at 11:21 -0800, Chuck Guzis via cctalk wrote:
On 12/7/20 10:32 AM, Van Snyder via cctalk wrote:
The first computer I was paid to write software
for didn't require me
to toggle in a boot loader: The IBM 1401 in 1966.
All I had to do was push the load key on the card reader, or the tape
load key on the operator console. And it didn't even have a teletype
console.
The contemporaneous 1620 had it both ways--one could type in the loader
on the console typewriter (hit the Release key when done) or by pressing
the console LOAD key, could read a record from either card or paper tape
into 00000-00079. On the CADET, one of the first things that most
loaders did was to have a small routine to read in the addition and
multiplication tables. If you're going to do any arithmetic at all,
you'd better have those!
--Chuck
One of my friends changed the tables in a 1620 to do octal arithmetic,
for telemetry processing.
Speaking of those tables, do you remember why the 1620 was called
CADET? Not because it was a "beginner's" or "novice" computer. It
was
an acronym for "Can't Add; Doesn't Even Try."
The Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California has a 1620
that worked for a time. They had a problem with cooling the core
memory, which they could probably repair. They didn't get a 1622 card
reader/punch, so they connected it to a PC -- which makes the
appropriate noises. When Professor Maniotis retired from Purdue
University, he gave two 20-drawer card cabinets of 1620 software to
CHM.
CHM also has two working IBM 1401's. Their cool address is 1401
Shoreline Blvd.