Helmut Kotsch
hkotsch at arcor.de
Tue Apr 3 16:49:22 CDT 2012
Well my IBM career started as an engineer supporting manufacturing and field engineering of the 1311 disk storage in Europe/Middle East/Africa. http://tinyurl.com/26fq3p >From that time on I had the privilege to observe / experience / accompany the whole development of the technology up to the first 3,5" 1 GB drives in the early nineties. Fighting the problems of VFO's (Variable Frequency Oscillators for detecting of and syncing with the disk data) and TROS (Transformer Read Only Storage which represented the controller microcode before the floppies have been invented) was our daily task. Helmut -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht----- Von: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com]Im Auftrag von jwcolby Gesendet: Dienstag, 3. April 2012 23:06 An: Access Developers discussion and problem solving Betreff: Re: [AccessD] Newegg.com - Kingston 8GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM ECC Registered DDR3 1333 Server Memory Model KVR1333D3D4R9S/8G > What about IBM 360 mainframe with MFT OS with 256-512 KB of RAM LOL, that is a (relatively) modern machine. I was trained to fix the Univac 642B, and maintained them until I left the US Navy in 1978. http://www.dluper.com/CP642B.html http://ed-thelen.org/comp-hist/univac-ntds.html Ahh the good old days. We actually learned each and every page of the schematics of the machine, and could use an o'scope to find any bad module. The schematics said that it was designed in 1958, and what you see in the pictures are discrete transisters, resisters and capacitors making up the logic gates. Each such card was a single flip-flop, or a pair of And / OR gates. Each metal can is a single transistor. I almost bought one when I got out of the Navy (surplus - they were being retired) but the power consumption was so high I couldn't possible feed the machine. Not to mention that my Z-80 s-100 bus computer I had just finished building was about a dozen times more powerful and fit in a small suitcase. ;) > Ever tried to "feed" such a "beast" with punchcards/control it via typewriting console? Yep. Paper tape as well, although by the early 70s (when I was trained to fix these monsters) we were using 3/4" tape and mechanically actuated "disc pack" IBM hard drives. IIRC the 10 platter IBM disc packs held about 20 mb each. That's 40 r/w heads to get 20 MB. The IBM 1301 Model 2 was what we used AFAICT. http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/storage/storage_1301.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_IBM_magnetic_disk_drives#IBM_350 These systems ran the USS Kennedy Aircraft Carrier back in those days. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_John_F._Kennedy_%28CV-67%29 I was on the Kennedy from 1975 to 1978. I was on board when we ran over the USS Belknap. The following shows a picture of her after the collision and resulting fire. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Belknap_%28CG-26%29 The collision sheared the jet fuel piping off the side of the carrier and dumped jet fuel down the Belknap's stacks, igniting the ammunition magazines and blowing the bottom out of the ship. But I digress rather severely! ;) John W. Colby Colby Consulting Reality is what refuses to go away when you do not believe in it On 4/3/2012 2:54 PM, Salakhetdinov Shamil wrote: > Hi Mark -- > > What about IBM 360 mainframe with MFT OS with 256-512 KB of RAM? (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MFT_(operating_system)#MFT ) > Ever tried to "feed" such a "beast" with punchcards/control it via typewriting console? > > -- Shamil > > Tue, 03 Apr 2012 13:56:34 -0400 от "Mark Simms"<marksimms at verizon.net>: >> I remember the days of mainframes with 128 MEGS !!!! >> >> >> -- >> AccessD mailing list >> AccessD at databaseadvisors.com >> http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd >> Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com >> > -- AccessD mailing list AccessD at databaseadvisors.com http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com