Chuck Guzis wrote:
Warren Wolfe wrote:
Much to my delight, an emulator which will
function as several
different CDC mainframes exists! However, upon further
investigation, this software costs US $12,500.00 for single CPU
copy. CRIPES! The university I attended GAVE AWAY the 6500 I
used to use.
A very common sense decision on their part. Big, unreliable, power-
hungry (MG set, chilled water) and a pain to move (think about all of
that coax running under the floor). Not to mention the
peripherals...
Oh, I know that... But, it just seems stupid that one could have the
computer for nothing, but the emulator costs over ten thousand dollars.
(They had no takers on the CDC 6500, by the way, and cut it up with
chainsaws and dragged it away to be scrapped. Sheesh.
But a 6000-series emulator wouldn't do it for me.
The constant 80-
some decibel level of the tape drive vacuum pumps, the screaming of
the line printers, the clackety-clack and jamming of the card reader,
the devastation to my social life because of dedicated block time in
the middle of the night, surviving out of vending machines by eating
cottage cheese and potato chips, Miinnesota in January, management
complaining of being behind schedule--it just wouldn't be the same.
For me, the vending machines dispensed punch cards. And, lots of times,
I got to use a TTY machine.
Running an emulator would be like watching a silent
black-and-white
film of the experience. I've never wanted to even try it. Besides,
how many deadstart tapes of SCOPE 3.1.6 still exist
I don't have a clue... but, to me, running the programs was it, not the
belches of the midnight operator (I heard he later went pro with it) and
jovial laughter of Dr. Eulenberg.... And, as I found out later, NSA
spooks all over the place. Funny... I never noticed them at the time.
Warren