29 Jan
2017
29 Jan
'17
4:55 a.m.
Doug! We would like a scan of your dad's certificate!
We have an ongoing collection on this computer at SMECC
1955 Honeywell computer business was originated from the Datamatic
Corporation, founded in Newton MA, as a joint-venture by Raytheon and
Honeywell, to produce large-scale computer systems. Raytheon sells its 40% interest
to Honeywell in 1957.. 1957 Installation of the first Datamatic D-1000
to Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Michigan.
Honeywell Datamatic 1000 uses 3 inch wide tape
we have a 3 inch very very heavy reel and the 30 something track tape
drive head.... could this someday be the start of the ultimate DIY tape
drive build and tape recover?
see more on this computer here... and we have modules for this tube
computer we need to photo and more stuff to scan and add.
http://www.smecc.org/honeywell_datamatic_1000.htm
In a message dated 1/29/2017 1:27:26 A.M. US Mountain Standard Time,
billdegnan at gmail.com writes:
On Jan 28, 2017 8:51 PM, "william degnan" <billdegnan at gmail.com>
wrote:
Datamatic
was a pre-Burroughs machine not Honeywell...I am not home to
check, if you'd like me to I can Monday. That's the base 10 system,
right? I also have some orig decimal counter tubes IIRC too. I suppose
that all qualifies as pretty rare. Or I am confusing with a different,
similarly - named system.
On Jan 28, 2017 8:40 PM, "Chuck Guzis" <cclist at sydex.com> wrote:
>
> On 01/28/2017 05:12 PM, Douglas Taylor wrote:
> > I have a certificate that my father was given in 1957 for training on
> > a Honeywell Datamatic 1000 computer.
> >
> > Here is a summary of this 'advance' in computer technology from the
> > ACM:
> >
> > The DATAmatic 1000 (D-1000) is a high-capacity electronic
> > data-processing system designed specifically for application to the
> > increasingly complex problems and procedures of present-day
> > business. The system incorporates significant new systems techniques,
> > as well as several basically new component developments. One of the
> > outstanding features of the D-1000 is its ability to feed information
> > from magnetic tape into the central processor at a sustained rate of
> > 60,000 decimal-digits per second, and to deliver data after
> > processing back to magnetic tape at this same rate. The operational
> > speed of the central processor maintains full compatibility with the
> > high speed of information transfer. Consequently, the difficulties
> > caused by programs which are either tape limited or processing-time
> > limited do not arise in the majority of commercial applications of
> > this system.
>
> Doug, you can probably re-live part of your dad's experience. There
are
> some Datamatic 1000 manuals on bitsavers:
>
>
http://bitsavers.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de/pdf/honeywell/datamatic_1000/
Big, wide tape reels.
--Chuck
I am pretty sure I have the first print of that manual, but I thought Bill
Yup I must be mistaken. Nevermind I'll check when I get back to my office
B
29 Jan
29 Jan
8:17 a.m.
On 01/29/2017 01:55 AM, COURYHOUSE at aol.com wrote:
Doug! We would like a scan of your dad's
certificate!
We have an ongoing collection on this computer at SMECC
1955 Honeywell computer business was originated from the Datamatic
Corporation, founded in Newton MA, as a joint-venture by Raytheon and
Honeywell, to produce large-scale computer systems. Raytheon sells its 40% interest
to Honeywell in 1957.. 1957 Installation of the first Datamatic D-1000
to Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Michigan.
Honeywell Datamatic 1000 uses 3 inch wide tape
we have a 3 inch very very heavy reel and the 30 something track tape
drive head.... could this someday be the start of the ultimate DIY tape
drive build and tape recover?
8:35 a.m.
On 01/29/2017 01:55 AM, COURYHOUSE at aol.com wrote:
Honeywell Datamatic 1000 uses 3 inch wide tape
we have a 3 inch very very heavy reel and the 30 something track tape
drive head.... could this someday be the start of the ultimate DIY tape
drive build and tape recover?
see more on this computer here... and we have modules for this tube
computer we need to photo and more stuff to scan and add.
http://www.smecc.org/honeywell_datamatic_1000.htm
(Apology for the previous null message--hit the wrong button)
The tape used appears to be an early videotape formulation, but wider
than the initial 2 inch format used in Ampex's early machines. It's a
sandwich affair with the magnetic oxide in the middle of two sheets of
mylar, so it should be pretty durable.
While there are 32 tracks on the tape, they're not used in parallel; a
given word is recorded serially on a track. A good thing--deskewing 32
tracks would be a real issue for early electronics. The curious thing
about the recording format is that blocks consisting of recorded words
are interlaced with respect to direction. Thus, every other block is
recorded while moving in a forward direction, while the same holds for
the tape going in the reverse direction. The general idea is to
minimize wasted space taken up by IRGs.
The tape units were buffered, such that a read could be initiated while
still processing data from a previous read operation. The programmer
could take advantage of the fact that data from a read operation began
arriving some 200 clocks from read initiation.
All in all, a fascinating view into early design.
--Chuck
1:01 p.m.
On 01/29/2017 03:55 AM, COURYHOUSE at aol.com wrote:
see more on this computer here... and we have modules for this tube
computer we need to photo and more stuff to scan and add.
http://www.smecc.org/honeywell_datamatic_1000.htm
Wow, 230 KVA, 67K cubic feet, 170,000 Lbs $2 million
purchase price! That's a pretty BIG computer!
I also noticed "good time" of 42 Hrs / week, and an MTBF of
4.9 Hrs.
Jon
2759
days inactive
2759
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