10 Apr
2015
10 Apr
'15
9:08 a.m.
From: geneb: Friday, April 10, 2015 8:32 AM
I want to make sure it wasn't in use before I
double-down on calling
shennanigans on "Joe" in this thread:
http://hackaday.com/2015/04/08/restoring-a-vintage-pdp-1104-computer/#comme…
Since he's talking about PDP-8 and PDP-14 machines, I'm guessing he's
talking about the MR8E core rope memory.
As far as I know, machines of that era used cores that
were so small the DEC
hired master seamstresses (myth?) to make them. It's certainly not something
that would be done in the field by John Q. Programmer.
From what I've read, MR8E were supposed to be
custom configured
at the factory, but it's conceivable that changes could be
made by the
customer.
The Field Service Guide actually recommends re-soldering (after
re-tinning) the connections on boards that were unreliable.
Vince