Computing from 1976

Chuck Guzis cclist at sydex.com
Mon Jan 1 14:29:43 CST 2018


On 01/01/2018 12:00 PM, Paul Koning via cctalk wrote:

> "Asychronous" does not mean the clock is skewed, it means the system operates without a clock -- instead relying either on worst case delays or on explicit completion signals.  That used to be done at times.  The Unibus is a classis example of an asynchronous bus, and I suppose there are others from that era.  The only asynchronous computer I can think of is the Dutch ARRA 1, which is notorious for only ever executing one significant program successfully for that reason.  Its successor (ARRA 2) was a conventional synchronous design.

I'm not certain, but I believe that the Philco System 2000 had parts of
the CPU that operated asynchronously.  At least that's what my failing
wetware seems to indicate.

--Chuck



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