Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!ames!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!mit-eddie!uw-beaver!microsoft!apex!chuckh
From: chuckh@apex.UUCP (Chuck Huffington)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: Computer noises (was Re: Cray architecture)
Message-ID: <615@wotan.apex.UUCP>
Date: 5 Apr 88 19:22:19 GMT
References: <7762@alice.UUCP> <5029@nsc.nsc.com> <850@gethen.UUCP>
Organization: Apex Computer Co, Redmond, WA
Lines: 18
Summary: IBM 70x and 709x noises

In article <850@gethen.UUCP>, farren@gethen.UUCP (Michael J. Farren) writes:
> In article <5029@nsc.nsc.com> curry@nsc.UUCP (Ray Curry) writes:
> >I'll tell you how old I am.  When I started college, they were ripping out the
> >vacuum tube IBM 7xx.  The little computer (1620 I think) that was used to input
> >programs to the IBM had a combination of core and relays that would produce 
> gethen!farren@lll-winken.llnl.gov ----- Tom Reingold, from alt.flame 

	The tape drives used with IBM 70x machines as well as the later
drives for the 709x systems used a pair of prolay's to control tape motion.
They were an electromechanical device that pushed the tape against a
rotating capstan or a fixed capstan to stop.  They were very noisy.
There was a program that intitiated tape ops and aborted them at appropriate
rates to produce music.  It worked but it tended to wear out tape and if
run too long, knocked the drives out of adjustment.

	The story about music from line printers is also true.

Chuck Huffington
Apex Computer Company