On Wed, 2024-12-11 at 17:34 -0800, James H. H. Lampert wrote: > On 12/11/24 5:20 PM, Van Snyder wrote: > > On Wed, 2024-12-11 at 18:42 -0600, Nate Bargmann wrote: > > > > You have four times the RAM of the OP. 4G is incredibly > > > > marginal > > > spec > > > > for a desktop 2024. > > > > The first computer I was paid to write software for, in 1966, had > > 1,400 > > 6-bit characters, not bytes, not kB, not MB, not GB. That's why IBM > > called it the 1401. > > And the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California has a > restored 1401 that they power up twice a week for demonstrations. > > As well as a restored DEC PDP-1. Not PDP-11. Not PDP-10. PDP-1. Until > I > saw it demonstrated, I wasn't even aware that DEC had ever used > magnetic > core memory. That one is only powered up for demonstrations twice a > month.
They also have an IBM 1620 CADET that worked for a while. They didn't get a 1622 card reader-punch so they built an interface to a PC, which made all the appropriate noises. It wasn't called CADET because it was for beginners. It used table lookup instead of circuitry for arithmetic, so the name meant "Can't Add Doesn't Even Try." > > -- > James H. H. Lampert >
