What is this?

[Tom Gardner]

There is a section in Bashe et al, Early IBM Computers that suggests Walnut only went to the CIA.

 

The follow on project was  Cypress beginning in 1962:

“The main Cypress system, designed to store all information in digital form, was sometimes called the Trillion-bit File. This system was very exploratory and expensive; it necessitated mastery over several technologically advanced engineering fields, among them electron- beam recording. (The project continued for several more years and five systems were delivered—three to AEC laboratories and two to NSA.)101

It became the 1360 Photo Digital Store

“101. Kean, 1977: pp. 79-80. Under the name IBM 1360 Photo-Digital Storage System, the first system was delivered on 30 September 1967 to the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory, Livermore, California; see R. M. Furman, 15 May 1968: “IBM 1360 Photo-Digital Storage System,” IBM Technical Report. For a technical description of the 1360, see J. D. Kuehler and H. R. Kerby, 1966: “A Photo-Digital Mass Storage System,” Proceedings of the Fall Joint Computer Conference, pp. 735-742. A simpler system, which stored images on microfilm, was announced as the IBM 1350 Photo Image Retrieval System in May 1966 and soon withdrawn for lack of sufficient acceptance.”

Tom

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Chuck Guzis [mailto:cclist at sydex.com] 
Sent: Friday, May 10, 2019 1:13 PM
To: Donald via cctalk
Subject: Re: What is this?

 

On 5/10/19 12:45 PM, Donald via cctalk wrote:

>  <http://www.myimagecollection.com/webpics/unknownmachine.jpg> http://www.myimagecollection.com/webpics/unknownmachine.jpg

> 

>  

> 

> The model number looks like 9603.  Can't tell for sure.  The box in 

> back has the 14xx flavor.

 

IBM 9603 WALNUT - Microfilm image storage and retrieval system.   Read

about it on PDF page 13 here:

 

 <http://nopr.niscair.res.in/bitstream/123456789/28351/1/ALIS%2014%282%29%2062-75.pdf> http://nopr.niscair.res.in/bitstream/123456789/28351/1/ALIS%2014%282%29%2062-75.pdf

 

Circa 1960.

 

There's more on the web; just search on "IBM WALNUT"

 

--Chuck