View Single Post
  #14  
Old January 14th 05, 02:59 PM
Tim Slattery
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default What a HOME COMPUTER could look like !! :-)

"Kevin" wrote:

The real thing is much more "science fiction looking" than you can imagine.
The massive main frame that was being used at Oregon State University back
in 1974 invoked images of the computer in the movie "Colossus: The Forbin
Project". A real classic, by the way, and a must-see sci-fi flick. Row
upon row of upright, refrigerator sized units with those big 1" wide tape
drives. Stacks of vinyl record sized platters that loaded into what looked
like washing machines. A huge impact printer that printed on 24" wide
continuous paper. It was all behind three doors of glass and steel, very
futuristic looking.


Yup, that's what I started with. I worked (still do) in downtown DC,
and we used the NIH computer utility in Bethesda. That was an array of
IBM 360s and 370s. We used IBM 2741 terminals - Selectric typewriters
that had been turned into terminals, and that communicated at 127.5
bps (IBM standard). We had a printer down the hall that had an
extremely high-speed link to NIH: 9200bps!

BTW, I remember when engineering students could be recognized by the
slide rules they wore.

As for sci-fi classics (well, maybe not quite a classic): did anybody
else ever read "The Adolescence of P1"?

--
Tim Slattery
MS MVP(DTS)

Ads