29 Nov
2014
29 Nov
'14
10:27 p.m.
On 11/29/2014 08:40 PM, Billy Pettit wrote:
You're right - the 170 was the first use of main
frame wire wrap at
CDC. I've never seen any other machine that used twisted pair wire
wrap. When I left the project, they were trying to defelop a machine
to automate the wiring. It was not going well.
I've got a couple of Eurcard 10K ECL boards with twisted pair all over
the place. Seems to be some sort of 12-bit CPU, from the looks of things.
There was also some sort of stapled-wire technology that was automated.
I don't recall the name of it.
The earlier 6000, 7000 machines used twited pair with
taper pins.
Their wire mats were huge, more than 10 inches thick in some places.
That was one of the problems they were trying to solve.
Penlight held in the mouth, go digging into the mat with both hands...
Fun.
--Chuck