IBM 1620

[Chuck Guzis]

On 08/30/2015 12:15 PM, Paul Koning wrote:

> Perhaps CDC's ECS?  125k (funny number that) words per memory bank.

Possibly.  We used a lot of it in SSD.  4MW installations were not 
uncommon, shared among 2-4 mainframes.  As I recall, core errors were 
not treated the same way as CM--part of deadstart was "flawing" ECS and 
creating a map of flawed areas, much as one might do with a disk.

It also had priority in CM access, so if you were doing a bunch of ECS 
transfers, you could see the DSD display dim and flicker.  1LT (long 
stranger tape driver) had conniptions with data underrun errors when ECS 
transfers were going on.

> I've never done that, though I have Carver Mead's textbook that
> describes how it is done.  I did do a PC board layout with red and
> blue tape on a light table, in 1977.

This was Silicon Valley, circa 1978 or so.  A bunch of Intel people put 
together a training course (not Intel-sponsored) for people who wanted 
to learn IC design.

PCB design was also a specialty, what with mylar film, tape, white-out 
and India ink and, of course, an X-acto knife.  The best people at this 
seemed to be from the Far East.  Done probably at 4X scale, then reduced 
for production.

--Chuck