El Reg posts dirty pics for old computer buffs
It's a puzzler....
Blocks and Files Reckon you know your computer history? Well, let's find out.
Here's a set of 11 pictures taken from assorted old computers. Your mission Jim, should you accept it, is to identify what's in these pictures and what's the computer or computer device they were found in.
I'll follow this article up with another in a week or two's time listing all the answers and naming the top five contributors of answers.
Here are the pictures:
A valve or other glass-enclosed thing:
First picture.
Wires and wires wrapped in bigger wires. Did Kubrick use this as a style theme for his 2001 film?:
Second picture
Remember these coloured switches?
Picture three
The next image looks like a complex washing machine front panel - but it isn't :-)
Picture 4
The picture below must be digital; remember that logo?
Picture 5
Next we have rings and wires. Which Lord of the Rings is this?
Sixth picture
Next a reminder of how we used to love soldering:
Picture 7
Yikes! Wiring complexity next:
Picture 8
Can you get the next one wrapped?
Picture 9
M, er, M, er, er, what the heck is this below?
Picture 10
Letters next. A printer?
Picture 11
That's it. Reckon you know what they are? Email your entries to me here - and post any public comments about this in the Reg Forum Picture Puzzler topic. ®
COMMENTS
Re: Larger picture versions@ http://www.rcsri.org/gallery/
Yes and those even have links to descriptions of those computers on them.
So 2 is a Packard Bell PB-250 from 1961 using delay lines.
3 is a PDP-12
4 is a PDP-8/E
5 is a PDP-10
6 is from a Honeywell 316
8 is again from a PDP-10
9 is from the Honeywell again
10 is from a PDP-8/I
Not linked are:
1 probably some dual pentode or dual triode
11 is a barrel or drum printer
So please if you do something like that, don't just use easily accessible pictures.
Re: Larger picture versions@ http://www.rcsri.org/gallery/
Everybody knows it's ferrite core memory.
Re: Larger picture versions@ http://www.rcsri.org/gallery/
Yes was a tadge sloppy.
Also after some thought I feel cheated there was no B205 burroughs pictures either. You might not know the name but once you have seen it you will totaly understand why it staple for a quiz of this type.
Is this some "Comouter Purity Test"?
For the ancient ones, have you:
Used a machine with real core memory?
Used Punch cards?
Made up a drum card for a keypunch?
EBCDIC?
Assembler on 5 different machines (with different instruction sets)?
Entered a program with the front panel switches?
That did some actual work?
Found a hardware bug?
Fixed the hardware bug you found?
Paper tape?
ASR 33 Teletype?
Acoustic modem?
Bootstrapped the operating system from the console with out using the "boot" function?
Build up a microprocessor system from the raw parts, and wired it yourself?
Replaced a defective core memory stack with a working one (soldering it yourself)?
<<<<<The list abounds, as I'm sure others will add entries!>>>>>
Picture 11 barrel printer
I remember those from my days as an operator in the 70s. Noisy buggers they were. 120 columns on the ICT one I operated. A hammer came from behind the paper to push it onto the drum forming a letter. The one in the photo is smarter than the ICT one which has a whole row of the same character in line. That meant a line of hyphens used to make a separator on a report all fired at once and could blow a fuse. I'm told a cleverly designed report could play interesting rhythms but I never heard one. An icon for nostalgia is needed.
