mainframes and other stuff

[Jon Elson]

On 11/21/2014 01:41 PM, William Donzelli wrote:
> 4381 6' box, 900# $1000
> $2000, GOLD. GOLD. GOLD.
>
>
Actually, IBM gear had VERY little gold in them.  They 
figured out how to REALLY
minimize the gold content back in the 360 days.  The SLT 
cards (plug-in boards
with the components on them) had selectively plated spring 
contacts with a tiny
speck of gold on the contact point.  The "boards", ie. 
backplane sections had
gold-plated wire-wrap pins.  That was the extent of the gold 
in the machines.
So, a good-sized 360 mainframe had a couple Oz. of gold, total.

A number of other makes had FAR more gold, like on DEC 
flip-chip card edge
fingers.

Jon