24 Jan
2012
24 Jan
'12
8:20 p.m.
On Tue, 24 Jan 2012, Andy Holt wrote:
Further web searches lead me to the IBM 706 which was
the main memory of the
IBM 701 system. The object looks like one of the 18 units that together
provided 2K 36 bit words of storage (and thus provides 4K bits, not bytes,
of memory). (and, yes, these are 3" diameter at the face plate)
An early version of the Whirlwind computer also used Williams Tubas:
"Initially Whirlwind used a modified form of the Williams tube. An
additional flood gun maintained the pattern of dots while a writing gun
was used to alter the pattern. Thirty two such tubes were needed to
provide the 4KBytes of storage that the Whirlwind needed. Given a tube
life of one month and cost $1000 the running cost of the machine was very
high, $1 per bit per month."
http://history-computer.com/ModernComputer/Electronic/Whirlwind.html
Mike Loewen mloewen at cpumagic.scol.pa.us
Old Technology http://sturgeon.css.psu.edu/~mloewen/Oldtech/