Harris Mini's (was: WTD: 9 track open reel for PDP-11) - test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

30 Dec 2018

Zane wrote:
...
  I didn?t realize they were 48-bit, though I seem to
remember them being 24-bit.  
 The system I used was more ?logistics? and general purpose ADP.  I spent a *LOT* 
 of time using the MUSE word processor.

 Zane 
...
 > On Dec 28, 2018, at 1:19 PM, Bob Smith
<bobsmithofd at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I almost remembered, had to look it up to confirm 81, the 48bit system
> they carried on when they bought the original company that had made
> them and the Vulcan OS. Not a bad scientific and instrumentation
> machine. What was the original company Datacraft or something?
> bob
>  

Zane, you are right that the Harris computers were 24-bit processors.
The primary word was 24 bits, with double integer at 48 bits and full floating
point at 96 bits.

Someday, when I have time, maybe I will think about an emulator. But not
right now.

I too spent many hours on Harris systems from 1977 to about 1983 or 1984, 
in college and then in working with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers during
summers and break weeks in graduate school. Most of my work was with
FORTRAN, plus some assembly and COBOL.

Kevin Anderson