[AccessD] OT: Merry Christmas

[John Colby]

John,

I was stationed on the USS Kennedy

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_John_F._Kennedy_(CV-67)

The 642 Alpha / Bravo ran several systems on the aircraft carriers of 
the day.  I was in CVIC which was the intel center.

http://fas.org/irp/doddir/navy/rfs/part06.htm

The pilots were briefed and debriefed using the computers in there. We 
had pen plotters to draw maps of the mission areas that the pilots would 
be flying in.  The systems used IBM disk drives (80 mb IIRC) to hold all 
of the info about radiation sources etc.  Photo labs, a weather system etc.

We reportedly had punched card decks with microfiche containing intel on 
every senior officer of our adversaries in the region we were assigned 
to.  In case we needed to "compromise" them etc.

Seems far fetched to me.  I wasn't a programmer however, so I really 
didn't get deeply into what the systems actually did.  I spent a lot of 
time playing guitar and the board game Risk.

On 12/26/2015 9:11 PM, John R Bartow wrote:
> Nice. What kind of computations were you running on it?
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: AccessD [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of
> John Colby
> Sent: Saturday, December 26, 2015 11:18 AM
> To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving
> Subject: Re: [AccessD] OT: Merry Christmas
>
> LOL, ya got me by 10 years.
>
> In 1972 I joined the US navy and attended a school for fixing computers.
>
> My first programs were in machine code directly (octal), on a Univac
> trainer.  It had a front panel with rows of push button switches with tiny
> neon bulbs for lights, which displayed (and allowed modification
> to) the internal registers of the computer.
>
> We inputted the instructions directly into these registers and then stored
> into core memory.  Dumped to paper tape.  read back in from paper tape.
>
> These machines were designed in 1958 IIRC.  Their big brothers (Univac
> 642 bravos) were just being replaced when I left the navy in 1978.  The
> entire intel center was run on two of these things.
>
> http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/univac/military/ntds/PX2846_CP-642B_T
> echDescr_Jul63.pdf
>
> Fascinating that anything got done really.  Everything was programmed in
> assembler because memory was so tight - 32 K Words for the entire machine.
>
> On 12/24/2015 5:12 PM, DJK (John) Robinson wrote:
>> And a Merry Christmas to you Shamil, and all others, from a Very Old
> Timer.
>> (How old?  Well, my development pretty much ceased around XP time,
>> which is why I almost never post these days, though I still read;  I
>> got my very first program working in 1962 - 53 years ago.  Anyone beat
>> that?)
>>
>> John
>>
>>

-- 
John W. Colby