On 12/13/2017 04:37 PM, Dave Howorth wrote:
You're a decade or so too late then. You're talking about minicomputers, which hadn't been invented, and ICs neither. When disks were 6' in diameter and 8' high drums were common. And yes I wrote disk driver code in microcode too. By the time of minicomputers, core was pretty much replaced by RAM - it meant the printers were no longer good places to warm yourself in the machine room.
Well, the oldest "computer" I worked on was built with vacuum tubes, relays and had a drum for storage. It was installed before I was born! ;-) Beyond that, the computers I worked on had ICs. The Data General Nova was created in 1968. However, at my office we had some older computers from Collins, which had transistor modules, instead of integrated circuits. Those systems also had 4' disks, with a 3 phase drive motor, 6" shaft and heads the size of a dollar coin. They were also water cooled. However, I didn't work on those ones. There was also a Phillips DS714 system that used transistors and drums. All the Nova computers had core memory, but the Eclipse had core or DRAM. I still have a core memory plane from one of those old Collins computers. Also, back then, we could keep our lunch cool under the raised floor! :-) -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org