Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 exptools 1/6/84; site ihuxq.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!harpo!ihnp4!ihuxq!amigo2 From: amigo2@ihuxq.UUCP (John Hobson) Newsgroups: net.misc Subject: Re: Nearly Prehistoric Computers Message-ID: <584@ihuxq.UUCP> Date: Thu, 2-Feb-84 16:45:32 EST Article-I.D.: ihuxq.584 Posted: Thu Feb 2 16:45:32 1984 Date-Received: Wed, 8-Feb-84 01:37:34 EST References: <588@seismo.UUCP> Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Naperville, IL Lines: 20 I wrote my very first program in September, 1966 at Stevens Institute of Technology (Hoboken, NJ) in a restricted version of FORTRAN II called FORGO (leading to obvious jokes about how one would gladly forgo fortran) to run on a machine called an IBM 1620. This fully transisterized computer had, as I recall, about 4K of memory, card input and output (you took the cards to an accounting machine nearby--plugboard programming--to get a listing) and did arithmetic by table look-up. I once had a program overflow memory, so I took it to the main computer, which was a UNIVAC 1105. The 1105 was a vacuum tube monster that ran hot, slow, and about 5-10% of the time would just lose your program somewhere. When they replaced the 1105 with an IBM 360, they quite literally couldn't give the 1105 away. John Hobson AT&T Bell Labs Naperville, IL (312) 979-0193 ihnp4!ihuxq!amigo2