New subject: Early timesharing (TYMSHARE)

19 Jul 2004

Time-sharing services were pretty common in the early 70s when powerful 
computers were difficult to afford for even medium-sized companies. Dec 
pdp-10s were often used. The company I worked for in the UK at the start of 
the 70s used a computer bureau called TSL (Time Sharing Limited) who offered 
both an interactive Focal-like language and compiled Fortran. The terminal 
was a standard 10cps teletype with paper-tape reader/punch.
Careful checking of input was needed because of the high costs involved. As 
an example I recall making a single error in a several thousand line circuit 
analysis program (we were designing early integrated circuits using it) and 
the resulting failed compilation cost £80 ($140) - quite a lot of cash in 
1972!
The username and password from those days is so burned into my brain that I 
still frequently use them today!
As recently as 1981 I was managing a multi-terminal IC design department 
time-sharing over a muxed 2400b line to a CDC supercomputer for Spice 
analyses with the output on the noisiest drum printer I've ever sat beside! 
Thankfully an in-house Vax then appeared.

Bob Adamson

...
 -----Original Message-----
From: Richard A. Cini [mailto:rcini@optonline.net]
Sent: 17 July 2004 16:51
To: CCTalk (E-mail)
Subject: Early timesharing/BBS systems

Hello, all:

	I was at VCFe yesterday and I have to say that the speakers and
demonstrations were great. Sellam did a fantastic job and where the event
was located at the Sun facilities worked out perfectly. One demo that I
missed was the ARPANET dial-up simulation which wasn't there when I left
at
3:30.

	Anyway, this demo brings-up an interesting question. What kind of
dial-up
systems existed in the 70's before consumer-oriented services like
CompuServe? I remember the DowJones and CompuServe sign-up packs at
RadioShack in maybe 1979 (I joined CIS in 1988. I even remember my ID:
70153,3367). I also remember in high school (around 1983) using a
DECwriter
to dial into the timesharing computer (at 300 baud; I don't know the host
system) at one of the local universities.

	Just curious. Thanks.

Rich

Rich Cini
Collector of classic computers
Build Master for the Altair32 Emulation Project
Web site: http://highgate.comm.sfu.ca/~rcini/classiccmp/
/************************************************************/

_________________________________________________________________
It's fast, it's easy and it's free. Get MSN Messenger today! 
http://www.msn.co.uk/messenger