Xref: utzoo comp.sys.misc:1488 comp.misc:2642 Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!uwvax!vanvleck!uwmcsd1!ig!agate!garnet!weemba From: weemba@garnet.berkeley.edu (Obnoxious Math Grad Student) Newsgroups: comp.sys.misc,comp.misc Subject: Re: Info wanted on eniac computers Message-ID: <11111@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> Date: 19 Jun 88 01:15:34 GMT References: <198@marque.mu.edu> <17496@glacier.STANFORD.EDU> Sender: usenet@agate.BERKELEY.EDU Reply-To: weemba@garnet.berkeley.edu (Obnoxious Math Grad Student) Followup-To: comp.misc Organization: Brahms Gang Posting Central Lines: 26 In-reply-to: jbn@glacier.STANFORD.EDU (John B. Nagle) In article <17496@glacier.STANFORD.EDU>, jbn@glacier (John B. Nagle) writes: > I'd like to encourage people to write simulators for one or two of the >early machines, as a way of keeping the history alive. The ENIAC was >plugboard-programmed, so it is not an enormously interesting machine to >simulate. An uncle of mine had been an IBM salesmen. When he learned I was first getting into computers, he dumped a pile of old IBM 650 manuals on me. At the time I was just a BASIC programmer, and didn't even know what machine/assembly language was. So my first major BASIC project ended up being an IBM 650 simulator. How old is the 650 you ask? It used a drum for main memory. This was before "core". It stored numbers in *decimal* form. Optimization tricks consisted of laying out your drum references very carefully. I've actually talked about the 650 to some geezers who used the real thing. They were so happy.... And when you get the chance, go to a good technical library and track down the original Fortran manual. The one that announces that bugs will now be a thing of the past. ucbvax!garnet!weemba Matthew P Wiener/Brahms Gang/Berkeley CA 94720