Science! (With VAXen)

On 25/03/2013 12:48, Liam Proven wrote: I had a visit there many years ago and were shown AMD2900 clones of Ferranti Argus Computers. I was told they cloned the machines because the code was dependant on the 24-bit word. So they stored "hhmmss" for right ascension and "ddmmss" for elevation as packed decimal. The old code was written in Forth which I would have thought would have been more portable. In addition they said Sir Bernard Lovell would not let them run the MK1A (The big dish) off a computer, it had to be manually steered, so when they were using the telescopes in an Array they would point the Mk1a at the object and the other telescopes would look where it was pointing and follow it.... -- Dave Wade G4UGM Illegitimi Non Carborundum