Fwd: Re: Architectural diversity - was Re: Pair of Twiggys

[Chuck Guzis]

On 03/16/2017 06:28 PM, ben via cctalk wrote:

> But was FORTRAN that portable? Other than the IBM 1130 I cannot think
> of a small computer that had ample I/O and memory to run and compile
> FORTRAN. All the other 16 bitters seem to more paper tape I/O. I
> suspect 90% of all university computers ended up as IBM 360 systems.
> A few ended up with the VAX, but who knows what they ran.


Oh, dear--time for a history lesson.

1. Even the IBM 650 had a FORTRAN of sorts
2. One thing that was a sales point for the PDP-8 back in the day was
that for about $5K, you could get a computer that would run 4K FORTRAN:

http://bitsavers.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de/pdf/dec/pdp8/software/DEC-08-AFCO-D_4K_FORTRAN.pdf

3. FORTRAN was originally released, IIRC for the IBM 709, and was a
card-only system; versions for the 704, and, as previously mentioned,
the 650.   I've used card-only FORTRANs on the 1620 and 1401.

4. The 8080/Z80 had FORTRAN, and I suspect there was also a FORTRAN for
the 8008 (if APL on the 8008 was possible, surely FORTRAN was).

5. I've never heard of a COBOL for the IBM 650.

--Chuck