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Hal
Skeptic Friend
USA
302 Posts |
 Posted - 09/26/2009 : 14:28:03
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I just bought an external hard drive to back up my home computer. This is the largest and fastest I've ever owned -- 1.5TB eSata. The drive, a Seagate Freeagent XTreme, was about $170 plus tax. Eyeballing it, I'd say it's about 6"x6"x1".
I was in college in the mid-1980s. Our computer lab was somewhat behind the times, even then. We hadn't yet acquired very many personal computers, so most of our work was done on some enormous DEC PDP and VAX equipment. One older system, in particular, had a couple of RP-11 hard drives. The removable disk packs in these had an unformatted capacity of about 40MB. Overall, the RP-11 was about the size of a washing machine.
A little quick arithmetic to compare the capacity of my new backup drive to that old RP-11: The Seagate has a capacity (as reported by Windows) of 1,500,299,264,000 bytes. The drive I used in college had a generously estimated capacity of 41,394,040 bytes. In other words, it would require approximately 35,770 RP-11s to equal the capacity of my new Seagate.
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Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.
Martin Luther King Jr.
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Ricky
SFN Die Hard
USA
4907 Posts |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 09/26/2009 : 17:00:53 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Hal
I was in college in the mid-1980s. Our computer lab was somewhat behind the times, even then. We hadn't yet acquired very many personal computers, so most of our work was done on some enormous DEC PDP and VAX equipment. One older system, in particular, had a couple of RP-11 hard drives. The removable disk packs in these had an unformatted capacity of about 40MB. Overall, the RP-11 was about the size of a washing machine. |
And the CPU was spread over a large number of circuit boards, slotted into a cabinet larger than a home upright freezer.
The primary job of my lifetime was to maintain PDP 11/70's and VAX equipment. Looked at retrospectively, it is somewhat depressing to consider that everything I knew about minicomputer maintenance is now wholly obsolete.
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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Dude
SFN Die Hard
USA
6891 Posts |
Posted - 09/26/2009 : 17:18:28 [Permalink]
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The funny thing there is that a room sized computer was called a "micro" computer!
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Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.
-- Thomas Jefferson
"god :: the last refuge of a man with no answers and no argument." - G. Carlin
Hope, n.
The handmaiden of desperation; the opiate of despair; the illegible signpost on the road to perdition. ~~ da filth |
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Hawks
SFN Regular
Canada
1383 Posts |
Posted - 09/26/2009 : 17:43:18 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Hal
The removable disk packs in these had an unformatted capacity of about 40MB. Overall, the RP-11 was about the size of a washing machine.
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Pfft. My Vic-20 would only take standard music cassettes and had a paltry 3.5 kb memory.
We also ate gravel for breakfast. |
METHINKS IT IS LIKE A WEASEL
It's a small, off-duty czechoslovakian traffic warden! |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 09/26/2009 : 19:23:45 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Hawks
Originally posted by Hal
The removable disk packs in these had an unformatted capacity of about 40MB. Overall, the RP-11 was about the size of a washing machine.
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Pfft. My Vic-20 would only take standard music cassettes and had a paltry 3.5 kb memory.
We also ate gravel for breakfast.
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My TRS-80 with 16K of memory spat upon your puny Vic-20.
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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Hal
Skeptic Friend
USA
302 Posts |
Posted - 09/26/2009 : 20:20:45 [Permalink]
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| My Timex-Sinclair didn't have a graphics processor. If I wanted to process data while displaying text on the screen, I had to time-slice between the raster scans. |
Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.
Martin Luther King Jr.
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26022 Posts |
Posted - 09/26/2009 : 21:55:12 [Permalink]
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In 1986, I bought an internal Seagate 20MB hard drive for $200.
So you got a disk with about 75,000 times as much storage, $30 cheaper, and it's portable. So HD space has increased by a factor of 1.63 per year. In other terms, it's doubled about every 17 months, beating Moore's Law by a bit... but my 20 MB disk wasn't top-of-the-line, so that will throw the calculation off. |
- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too. |
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bngbuck
SFN Addict
USA
2437 Posts |
Posted - 09/26/2009 : 23:42:45 [Permalink]
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Hal.....
State of the art computer science when I entered college (1946)
A fascinating glance at the role of women in the initial stages of development of computer programmingThe ENIAC Programmers, 1946
Posted November 06, 2007 12:02 AM by t-rex
Pathfinder Tags: computers ENIAC programmers women
During World War II, over 80 women worked at the University of Pennsylvania calculating ballistics trajectories by hand. The Army called these women "Computers". In 1945, six of these computers were selected to be the first programmers of an all-electronic digital computer. These six women were Kathleen McNulty Mauchly Antonelli, Jean Jennings Bartik, Frances Snyder Holberton, Marlyn Wescoff Meltzer, Frances Bilas Spence, and Ruth Lichterman Teitelbaum.
The Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC) was a massive computer that could add 5,000 numbers and do fourteen 10-digit multiplications in a second. This was double the speed of the fastest mechanical relay computers of that day. Since ENIAC was classified, the programmers were not allowed access to the machine until they received security clearance. The programmers had no manuals to refer to or courses in programming. They had to physically route data by using the 3000 switches and dozens of cables to program pulses through the machine. After the ENIAC computer was unveiled to the public, it was turned into a stored program computer. The first ENIAC programmers had to manually wire the computer each time a particular program was executed.
The public and press were amazed by the ENIAC. The machine became legendary and its engineers – all men – became famous. The ENIAC programmers were never introduced or credited during the 1940s. Each of these pioneering women contributed greatly to the programming of the ENIAC computer. Many of them would go on to develop tools for software engineers and teach future programmers.
Kathleen McNulty Mauchly Antonelli, or Kay Antonelli, moved to Aberdeen with the ENIAC after the war. She married one of the computers co-inventors, John Mauchly, and they had five children together. Kay worked on software for the BINAC and UNIVAC I, computers which were designed by her husband. Kay authored papers and would frequently speak with Jean Bartik about the ENIAC programmers. In 1997 she was inducted into the Women in Technology International Hall of Fame along with the other original programmers.
Jean Jennings Bartik, born Betty Jean Jennings, was a mathematics major at the Northwest Missouri State Teachers College. Bartik would go on to be part of the group that converted ENIAC to a stored computer. Jean Bartik also worked on programming the BINAC and UNIVAC I computers.
Born Frances Snyder Holberton, Betty Holberton was the inventor of the mnemonic instruction set for the BINAC. Grace Hopper called this the basis for all subsequent programming languages. Betty also helped develop the early standards for COBOL and FORTRAN. In addition to induction into the WITI Hall of Fame with the other programmers, Betty Holberton received the Augusta Ada Lovelace Award for computer programmers.
Marlyn Wescoff Meltzer was a graduate of Temple University and was hired by the Moore School of Engineering because she knew how to operate an adding machine. She resigned from the ENIAC team in 1947 before it was moved to Aberdeen.
Frances Bilas Spence graduated from Chestnut Hill College with a major in mathematics and a minor in physics. She operated the Differential Analyzer and along with Kay, led the teams of women who calculated the ballistics equations. She moved to Aberdeen with the ENIAC and married an army engineer. Frances later resigned from the project and raised a family.
Ruth Lichterman Teitelbaum had a B.Sc. in mathematics from Hunter College. Ruth followed the ENIAC to Aberdeen where she taught the next generation of programmers the special functions of the computing tool.
Resources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betty_Holberton
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ENIAC
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frances_Spence
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Bartik
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kathleen_Antonelli
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marlyn_Meltzer
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruth_Teitelbaum
http://eniacprogrammers.org/overview.html
http://www.google.com/events/eniac/index.html
http://www.upenn.edu/almanac/v42/n18/eniac.html
http://www.witi.com/center/witimuseum/halloffame/1997/eniac.php |
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Chippewa
SFN Regular
USA
1496 Posts |
Posted - 09/27/2009 : 00:53:14 [Permalink]
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And yet, despite progress, the computers depicted in 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) still look cooler than anything today.  |
Diversity, independence, innovation and imagination are progressive concepts ultimately alien to the conservative mind.
"TAX AND SPEND" IS GOOD! (TAX: Wealthy corporations who won't go poor even after taxes. SPEND: On public works programs, education, the environment, improvements.) |
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Hawks
SFN Regular
Canada
1383 Posts |
Posted - 09/27/2009 : 08:17:07 [Permalink]
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| In the B(with a CAPITAL B)-movie What waits below (for some reason it was called "the Nicaragua Code" in swedish, I remember) they use Vic-20's as their state-of-the-art computer terminals. It was made in 1984, mind you, but still... |
METHINKS IT IS LIKE A WEASEL
It's a small, off-duty czechoslovakian traffic warden! |
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sailingsoul
SFN Addict
2830 Posts |
 Posted - 09/27/2009 : 16:50:48 [Permalink]
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| Lets not forget Data General Minicomputers, which the DPD-11's were a knockoff of and Diablo disk drives. As a tech, I repaired computer's or disk drives, with an oscilloscope and replaced (ic's) components, on circuit boards. Those were the days, when I got to work with a pair of "dikes". Today if the power connector goes bad in your laptop, they have to change your whole Mother board. How lame is that for today's technicians. Hell! OSHA probably prohibits soldering irons in the work place, they wouldn't anyone to get a booboo or get pissed off at your boss and burn his eye's out. Life ain't what it use to be. SS |
There are only two types of religious people, the deceivers and the deceived. SS |
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Hal
Skeptic Friend
USA
302 Posts |
Posted - 09/27/2009 : 18:40:12 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by sailingsoul
Lets not forget Data General Minicomputers, which the DPD-11's were a knockoff of and Diablo disk drives. As a tech, I repaired computer's or disk drives, with an oscilloscope and replaced (ic's) components, on circuit boards. Those were the days, when I got to work with a pair of "dikes". Today if the power connector goes bad in your laptop, they have to change your whole Mother board. How lame is that for today's technicians. Hell! OSHA probably prohibits soldering irons in the work place, they wouldn't anyone to get a booboo or get pissed off at your boss and burn his eye's out. Life ain't what it use to be. SS
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I've poked my soldering iron in a system or two. (Wait -- that came out wrong.) I used to work with Alpha Microsystems computers. These were beefy little m68xxx machines, with all the quirks of systems coming from a company apparently staffed entirely by engineers. Software was distributed on VHS cassette tapes. Major OS patches sometimes required alterations to the motherboard. In these cases, the tapes shipped with a spool of "LGY" (little green wire) and instructions on where to solder the required jumpers on the mobo.
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Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.
Martin Luther King Jr.
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 09/27/2009 : 23:31:30 [Permalink]
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A friend of mine had, you can probably correct me on this, either an Alpha Microsystems or an Altair computer. I seem to recall that he built it from a kit. To boot it, he needed to toggle in enough binary code on the front panel to make it load its punched bootstrap paper tape. He had added 8-inch floppies. It had no hard disk.
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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Hal
Skeptic Friend
USA
302 Posts |
Posted - 09/28/2009 : 06:06:33 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by HalfMooner
A friend of mine had, you can probably correct me on this, either an Alpha Microsystems or an Altair computer. I seem to recall that he built it from a kit. To boot it, he needed to toggle in enough binary code on the front panel to make it load its punched bootstrap paper tape. He had added 8-inch floppies. It had no hard disk.
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That sounds like an Altair. Alpha Micros were viable business systems. They were often packaged with vertical applications, such as for hotel registration management.
Unrelated, but you reminded me that the very first C program I ever wrote was a device driver for an 8-inch floppy drive in a PDP 11/44.
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Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.
Martin Luther King Jr.
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I guess I'm (even) older than I thought?
