4 Feb
2007
4 Feb
'07
9:16 a.m.
On Sat, 03 Feb 2007 15:31:06 -0800, Brent Hilpert wrote:
Bob Bradlee wrote:
> THe 704 was announced May 7, 1954 and withdrawn
April 7, 1960 it was the first binary computer to
use
> core memory.
I hope you mean to say the 704 was the first *IBM*
binary machine to use core
memory. Whirlwind did so a year or two year earlier (16-bit binary word).
(...always sticking up for Whirlwind for some reason)
I had forgotten about that one, I stand corrected and change my comment to:
The 704 was the first production computer to use core memory. I do love revisionism :-)
FYI: For a short period of time in 1969, I trained on a 1940's vintage Link trainer
while attending the Navy
Aviation Training Device Technician and Instructor School in Millington TN. I went on to
working on the F4
Phantom sym at MAS Beaufort in SC, that was in early 1970. In 1971 all about the
calibration problems of
upgrading large hard wired analog systems when I worked on an A4e sym upgrade there in
Beaufort.
These systems used servo driven multiganged reostats as their storage device. There was no
boot or
loadable program on the flight side. A little digital was added in the mid 60's during
an weapons system
upgrade and when the ECM stuff was added.
later
Bob