This was in the early 80's. I worked on both the Nova 1200 and the Eclipse S230, both were ALU based. The Novas we used were core memory only (4k or 8k x 16 bits). The Eclipses were usually core memory, but there were dynamic memory boards on the later systems. The core memory could be "interleaved" to increase write speed.
The Eclipses also had a two board CPU with the second board a kind of math co-processor / accelerator. We also used the Data General S140 in the later systems, which had the "virtual" front console (no blinking lights or switches), but I didn't work on those. As Jerry mentioned, AutoTrol was a competitor with Calma and about two or three others. Calma started with a big digitizing table, to input paper maps. Systems were then developed (the GDS line) to do IC mask design, which was the major business, and then mechanical drafting and finally PCB layout. National Semiconductor was a big customer. We also included pen plotters (HP and Xinetics) of which some could handle a 4'x8' sheet of paper, for plotting out the IC masks at a magnification one could easily see the features and verify measurements. I miss those days of computing .... Regards, Peter > ------------------------------ > > Message: 7 > Date: Sun, 11 Jul 2021 10:42:24 +0930 > From: Daryl Tester <[email protected]> > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: [M100] Burn in program > Message-ID: > <[email protected]> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed > > On 11/7/21 9:24 am, Peter Noeth wrote: > > > ... repairing?Data General mini computers, > > Novas, or Eclipses? You said discrete ALU board, so I'm suspecting Nova, > but I've never seen the internals of an Eclipse. > > Cheers, > --dt > >
