Re: Anyone around 18 in the group?

On Fri, 05 Aug 2005 20:25:08 -0700, Victor Odhner <vodhner@cox.net> wrote:

Speaking of memories...
> ec wrote hastily:

>
> New Year's eve, 1970, I got a whole top-end
> Burroughs mainframe to myself in the factory to
> run an experimental printed circuit router. Man,
> that machine was the pinnacle. ...programmed totally in ALGOL,
> including
> the OS.

For sure, for sure. Those were way ahead of their time. I remember a
Univac salesman with egg all over his face trying to talk about the new
features comming on the Univac OS. The usual response: "We've had that
for years."

A sad note: After Burroughs hostile take over of Univac's parent (Sperry
Rand), the CEO, some 6 months later, realized he had left his old
employees on such a short end of the bargain that he took his own life.

> I had written the programs that wired the
> thing, including the 18,000 wires on the six-foot CPU
> backplanes.

I assume you saw one of those wire-wrapping machines at work. The data
input device on the one I saw was an IBM card punch (Yes, in a Univac
factory). BTW, I just bought a new wirewrap gun for the Science Bowl
project I'm doing.

> 'Young'ns' -- hrmf. :-)
>
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