On 03/06/2012 12:43 AM, dwight elvey wrote:
Hi
I read one of them. There were enough going
out to schools the create a user group.
There weren't a lot (maybe 50 to 100)
but back then there
were maybe a few hundred Linc, and many other lab made
computers out there.
I'd have loved to tinker with one when I was in
school.
They were really slow though. I'd have thought
they'd need to be faster to control a missle.
I did, They were slow but careful programming made them appear
fast enough. They were extremely awkward to program though.
For the time, anything that could compute was
cool.
I wonder how many working ones are left.
Same here. I'd suspect the surface barrier transistors used
have seen half life failure due to germanium whiskers causing
internal shorts. It's a repairable thing.
Even if it did,'t have the drum unit. That could
easily
be replaced with something else to provide the
same function.
They were supplied with disk (it was a platter not a drum).
the disk was a multi head affair that provided data/program tracks
and multiple "registers". Flipflops being very costly in terms of
transistors (4-8 per bit) needed were very few. Everything was
bit serial.
They were a pain to power as they needed multiple voltages
at hefty currents and the disk had to have 400hz for the
spindle motor. All of the IO needed level conversion for the
intended use.
As a result many were studied, some powered and most just looked at.
the military didn't do a program like that mostly because the market
had moved on and the D37 was a clunker by industry standards
by time it was in use. No one would have wanted it by time it reached
retirement as the micro market and the PC were well established.
Add to that military paranoia got worse but that was not so much
an issue as lack of interest.
Add to that within two to 3 years of their arrival (D17) the micro (8008)
and PDP-8s, CDC160s and other cheap (under $10K) computers
were becoming common and they were far easier to use and
much faster. The world had already changed from a computing standpoint.
Allison
Dwight
Date: Mon, 5 Mar 2012 12:26:36 -0800
From: aek at
bitsavers.org
To:
Subject: Re: Minuteman Computer
On 3/5/12 11:54 AM, Fred Cisin wrote:
(Or just the guidance system? and the other
components are permitted?)
As Will has mentioned in the past, releasing of D17Bs to schools was a one
time occurrence. The history is completely documented on the scanned material
from the Minuteman User's Group documents on bitsavers.
http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/autonetics/d17/
I would appreciate it if people would READ it before saying anything more on
this subject.