19 Dec
2005
19 Dec
'05
9:58 p.m.
...not the earliest, but just for the record:
HP 2116C (1969/70)
Hardware is all functioning and I've written some programs and a monitor/system for
it but I'd like to find original (period) software to run on it.
Jules Richardson wrote:
I suppose I'm just curious as to what systems from
the 1940's to 1970's have
survived, as most of the talk on here seems to be of more recent (1970's and
1980's) hardware and very little gets said about the earlier stuff.
This is partly why I collect 60s-era calculators. They are examples of complex digital
systems (ALU,memory,I/O,control - everything but the general-purpose/stored-program),
available in discrete and SSI implementations, but more available and manageable
(size/weight/power) than full computer systems of the era.
Digital frequency counters from the 50s/60s also provide examples of early
digital technology, constructed using the same sorts of circuitry and
techniques as computers of the same era). I keep a couple of vacuum-tube-based
digital counters around, along with discrete-transistor and SSI versions, as comparable
examples of the generations of digital electronics.
HP tube counters seem to still be around in some quantity (vacuum-tube counters
and logic,
not just NIXIE displays).