12 Mar
2016
12 Mar
'16
12:32 p.m.
From: Charles Anthony
The enormous number of configuration switches is due
to the extreme
modularity of the system. ... Each bank could taken out of service
The really amazing thing (considering the vintage) was that that
reconfiguration could be done with the power on, and the system running!
E.g. MIT had a two-CPU three-memory system; at night, they used (while the
system was running!) to take off one of the CPUs and a memory box, bring them
up as a separate development system, and in the morning, add the 'borrowed'
CPU and memory back onto the main system - without ever shutting the main
system down! People using it at the time could't even tell it had undergone a
mitosis, and then a merge.
Noel