5 Jan
2001
5 Jan
'01
5:53 a.m.
I have actually worked for three companies where paper tape was actually
used every day. The nice thing about paper tape is that you can visually
inspect the output and know what was on it. There were commonly two ways to
store it, fan folded or rolled.
1. 1974 when I worked in a microbiology lab the SMAC Automated
chemistry analyzers produced paper tape that contained the results from the
blood chemistry results. The paper tape was then fed into a IBM 360/50
where the lab reports were generated. The reports compared the individual
patients results to the predicted normal ranges. The real experts could
patch/splice paper tape to correct a result or for a repeat. They didn't
run the IBM 360/50 at night while the lab samples were processed. Each
analyzer had its own ASR-33.
2. 1975 graduate school, where the PDP 8's were booted by toggling in
through the front panel the bootstrap loader and then the actual OS was
loaded via paper tape read on an Teletype ASR-33.
3. 1978 McDonnell-Douglas where the programs loaded into individual
missiles were punched onto Mylar paper tape and a copy stored in a vault for
positive verification of the program that was loaded.
Mike
mmcfadden(a)cmh.edu
5 Jan
5 Jan
6:18 a.m.
I have actually worked for three companies where paper
tape was actually
used every day. The nice thing about paper tape is that you can visually
inspect the output and know what was on it. There were commonly two ways to
store it, fan folded or rolled.
A company I used to work for created paper tapes to run
semiautomatic wirewrap machines for building circuit
boards. They had modified a DEC paper tape punch to be
driven from a Digilog CP/M machine.
Some time later, the company acquired a semiautomatic
wirewrap machine of its own. We then used the tapes we
created. After a while, they modified a PC to emulate
the paper tape reader; we still generated the paper tape
files, but instead of punching paper tapes we stashed the
files on the Novell server and pointed the PC at them.
The semiautomatic wirerap machine still moved the paper
tape reels, but the data coming in from the reader head
was supplied by the PC instead of by the paper tape.
3. 1978 McDonnell-Douglas where the programs loaded
into individual
missiles were punched onto Mylar paper tape and a copy stored in a vault for
positive verification of the program that was loaded.
In the late '80s I wrote an RT-11 device driver for a mylar
tape reader for the A7 guys in China Lake. The previous
software they were using had hardcoded paper tape input
routines. Our new software generalized the mylar tape
loading into file operations, so it was now possible to
store files on disk and load them into the A7 mission
computer. The RT-11 device driver allowed us to still
use the actual mylar tapes.
--
Roger Ivie
rivie(a)teraglobal.com
Not speaking for TeraGlobal Communications Corporation
9:25 a.m.
BTDT... pdp-8 on a 'computer-assisted' Bendix coordinate measuring
machine (CMM). All the measuring programs were written to paper tape
using an ITT teletype.
Later on a pdp 11/24 on a 'computer-controlled' Bendix HA-5 CMM.
Software distribution from DEC was on a packing case full of paper
tape. (System also had a whopping 128k of mag-core memory.) Boot
through the front panel. Used to 'proof' the tooling (N/C tapes
(mylar)) for the Tomahawk Cruise Missile.
Interesting time to be working in aerospace! We were developing the
machining centers to build the product. (5 axis internal boring mills,
n/c lathes, and so on.) Company is now a vacant lot.
Jim
1:47 p.m.
Check out http://deltasoft.fife.wa.us/BehindTheScenes. You'll see a
Conductron-Missouri 727 flight simulator that still uses mylar tape to
load scene data into the Varian powered video system. :)
g.
8564
days inactive
8564
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4 comments
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participants (5)
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geneb＠deltasoft.com -
jrasite＠eoni.com -
mikeford＠socal.rr.com -
mmcfadden＠cmh.edu -
rivie＠teraglobal.com