Retro computing: not really mining, sorry.· Page 2

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exspelio
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10 years ago

#21

I forgot about that, one of my early jobs in the late '60's was punching the cards at DHSS. never got to see the computer though.

Always remember, nature is in charge, get it wrong and it is you who suffers!.

pwhole
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10 years ago

#22

I never thought I'd see the First Church of Appliantology get a mention up here. Well done 😉

davetidza
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10 years ago

#23

On 1st June 1970 (having done a NCB electrician's apprenticeship) I started work for NCR (National Cash Register) as an engineer on NCR 315 mainframes. The first machines I worked on were in the vaults of the Clydesdale Bank in Glasgow. Amongst the weekly jobs was changing the oil and cleaning the air filters on some of the peripherals. Disk drives had not appeared by then, so the random storage was done on mylar cards with a magnetic coating that hung in a deck of 256 and were then dropped into a throat to be read and written on a rotating capstan and magnetic head. Monitors had also not made an appearance, so the whole thing was controlled by a teletypewriter. It also (being American) ran on 60Hz and 115v - so there was a motor generator set to generate the correct supply. This was 30KVA per machine. I retired in 2010 having just completed 40 years in IT.

Wormster
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10 years ago

#24

"pwhole" wrote:
I never thought I'd see the First Church of Appliantology get a mention up here. Well done ;)

Great Googly Moogley!!

It HAD to make an appearance I'm glad you appreciate the humor

Better to regret something you have done - than to regret something you have not done.

Yorkshireman
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10 years ago

#25

Speaking of retro - how about a steam punk PC!

http://www.extravaganzi.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Datamancer-The-Clacker-Full-PC-suite-4.jpg

lozz
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10 years ago

#26

I remember using an EC-! when I was getting my educashun for City & Guilds at collidge.

http://blog.analogmachine.org/2012/03/15/analog-computers/

Lozz.

Mr Mike
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10 years ago

#27

So anyone used a XQJ-37 ?

Mr Mike www.mineexplorer.org.uk

Mr.C
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10 years ago

#28

Thought this might raise a smile - (might even look familiar to Davetidza if he's who I think he is?)
Corner of workshop at the computer firm I worked for in the early 80's
Right foreground is DEC RX 02 dual 8" floppy drive with a massive 512kB of storage per disc!
Behind it's a DEC LA 34 terminal/printer. The big cardboard boxes that the scope's sat on, each hold a single 10mB removable disc cartridge for an RL 01 disc drive - which weighed in at around 80 Lbs.!!

🔗Personal-Album-1036-Image-99246[linkphoto]Personal-Album-1036-Image-99246[/linkphoto][/link]

We inhabit an island made of coal, surrounded by a sea full of fish. How can we go wrong.......

davetidza
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10 years ago

#29

Indeed it does - the last time I saw them was in a workshop in Horsley Woodhouse - a long time ago!

Mr.C
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10 years ago

#30

"davetidza" wrote:
Indeed it does - the last time I saw them was in a workshop in Horsley Woodhouse - a long time ago!

Hi Dave, so I guessed correctly!
And yes, it's TSS's workshop in Horsley Woodhouse - 30 odd years ago.

Nigel

We inhabit an island made of coal, surrounded by a sea full of fish. How can we go wrong.......

davel
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10 years ago

#31

Continuing the 'What I did in my previous life' thread ...

Yours truly (with more hair) using an Intel development system with an ICE (in-circuit emulator) and PROM programmer to develop code (assembly language) for single chip microprocessor applications in the early 1980s.

Storage was two 8" floppy disk drives (I later got a hard disk for the system).

🔗Personal-Album-166-Image-99247[linkphoto]Personal-Album-166-Image-99247[/linkphoto][/link]

Davel

Mr.C
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10 years ago

#32

"davel" wrote:
Continuing the 'What I did in my previous life' thread ...

Yours truly (with more hair) using an Intel development system with an ICE (in-circuit emulator) and PROM programmer to develop code (assembly language) for single chip microprocessor applications in the early 1980s.

Nice! Presumably 8bit ?

Mid 80's I was playing with Motorola's Exoset 100 development/ICE systems for the 6809.
We seem to have hit a rich seam of obsolete junk! 😉

We inhabit an island made of coal, surrounded by a sea full of fish. How can we go wrong.......

davetidza
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10 years ago

#33

To add to the 'where are they now' thread. Between NCR and DEC, I worked for Ferranti next to Manchester Airport (not a happy experience!!). I worked on ARGUS 500 and 700 kit, which is where I saw my first disk drive - a Burroughs 2Mb fixed head disk. It was 5 feet in diameter and came with a plumbers kit including PFTE Tape and Leak Detector detergent. If you opened the cabinet assembly it took 24 hours to purge the air inside, using a contraption which looked a bit like a Dalek.

For the NCR 315 see
http://www.computerhistory.org/revolution/memory-storage/8/264/1111

lozz
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10 years ago

#34

"Mr.C" wrote:
Thought this might raise a smile - (might even look familiar to Davetidza if he's who I think he is?)
Corner of workshop at the computer firm I worked for in the early 80's
Right foreground is DEC RX 02 dual 8" floppy drive with a massive 512kB of storage per disc!
Behind it's a DEC LA 34 terminal/printer. The big cardboard boxes that the scope's sat on, each hold a single 10mB removable disc cartridge for an RL 01 disc drive - which weighed in at around 80 Lbs.!!

🔗Personal-Album-1036-Image-99246[linkphoto]Personal-Album-1036-Image-99246[/linkphoto][/link]

Is that a Tek 453 I spy ?

Lozz.

Wormster
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10 years ago

#35

Anyone else play with SDK 8080's??
We had ro programme them at college in the mid 80's!
Could never get mine to do what I wanted!!

Better to regret something you have done - than to regret something you have not done.

lozz
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10 years ago

#36

"Wormster" wrote:
Anyone else play with SDK 8080's??
We had ro programme them at college in the mid 80's!
Could never get mine to do what I wanted!!

I'm sure I did, at least I think so, the 8080 that is, used one of them and a few other bits to make an experimental rudimentary 'scope using a Dragon 32 PC, it did work but max resolution was in the Khz range, sample and hold and all that stuff, ran it under BASIC :(

Also messed around with the Z80 (Zilog)

Brave new world.

Lozz

BASum
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10 years ago

#37

I've just bought myself an original commadore c64! Now that really is going back to basics! 😉 Might replace the original hardware with modern stuff (bit like your specs roy) and then install the original OS (amiga OS) from a virtual machine.
If anyone gets so fed up with modern day software then there's always www.winworldpc.com to really revert back to the good ol' days. It's just a repository of tons of legacy software that you can run on your modern day computer, well worth a visit 🙂

Holes before hoes

Mr.C
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10 years ago

#38

"lozz" wrote:

Is that a Tek 453 I spy ?

Lozz.

More than likely, that or a 454 - I used both at various times but can't remember one from the other now!!

We inhabit an island made of coal, surrounded by a sea full of fish. How can we go wrong.......

Morlock
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10 years ago

#39

"BASum" wrote:
I've just bought myself an original commadore c64!

We bought one of those (Amiga model?) for the kids to replace their ZX spectrum. What years did those two appear?

Dark Prince
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10 years ago

#40

I have a passing interest in old computer stuffs. First computer was an Oric 1, then a Vic 20. Found some operating instructions for some Winchester drives the other day in the basement of a Nat West bank...

DP