4 Feb
2007
4 Feb
'07
12:53 p.m.
Chuck Guzis wrote:
On 4 Feb 2007 at 9:32, Jim Isbell, W5JAI wrote:
Given Ampex tape drives, has the "7070" number lead to the presumption in the
discussion that it was an IBM processor?. Might it be that it was made by
another manufacturer, and a one-off/special contract that wouldn't typically
show up in popular lineages?
Another thought...Since this was, at the time,
the only one and apparently
in use BEFORE the public had access to the model, that it was an earlier
model that had been upgraded to the performance specs of the 7070 for the
government in advance of the 7070s being released as a solid state machine
and so therefore we referred to it as a 7070?? It was my understanding at
the time that ours was the only one in existence and then later we heard
that others had been built.
Another possiblity--the Ampex tape drives wouldn't have been standard
at the time; it would have been IBM 729's. Could this have been a
7070 hybrid setup of some sort with non-IBM peripherals perhaps using
tubes?