I programmed on a DEC PDP 8.
8K of core memory.
 It was a general purpose mini computer.
Machine was a big deal in that it brought computers out on the shop floor.
Had to toggle in boot up program and then binary loader with punch tape, 20
minutes boot and load.

The test Engineers at DEC and Data General would order competitors machines
for production as they were sold rather than allocated internally. The PO
usually was booted and a machine provided. Wang, Prime, Nixdorf and Apollo
were in a 40 mile radius as well as others. All grew and died like weeds.

Company modified the PDP 8 to run tape controlled NC mills to produce
thread rolling dies with only 8 parameters entered on tape. Early CNC.




On Thu, May 23, 2013 at 6:03 PM, Ahne Oosterhof <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Uhhhh?
>
> From the other responses you should know by now that these are ferrite
> beads with wires running through them, forming a memory board. Small amount
> of memory / lot of space / hard to build / expensive. Unlike today's memory
> where we are counting gigabits for little money.
>
> Can you imagine taking a piece of copper wire, making it as straight as
> possible and shoving it through each row and column of these little beads
> that were manually placed in a form? It takes time and patience!
>
> Ahne.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: TechNet [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Eva J
> Sent: 23 May, 2013 13:55
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: [TN] NTC: Pat Goodyear "Whatzit" Photos
>
> EMI shielding material?
>
>
> On Thu, May 23, 2013 at 4:44 PM, Ahne Oosterhof <[log in to unmask]>
> wrote:
>
> > I remember seeing girls "weaving" those things when I worked at
> > Philips in the late 60-s!
> > Interesting to see them accomplish that, but not my cup of tea.
> >
> > Ahne.
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: TechNet [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Steve Gregory
> > Sent: 23 May, 2013 13:04
> > To: [log in to unmask]
> > Subject: Re: [TN] NTC: Pat Goodyear "Whatzit" Photos
> >
> > Quoting Pat from the email he sent to me with the pictures:
> >
> > "Steve I am sending a couple of jpgs of core, can you post them with
> > what-is-it titles?     See if we can stir up some old memories.
> > These are from a Westinghouse Prodac 250, I think they are either 2 -
> > 1K memory cores, or possibly  4 bit x 1k.
> > How would you like to sit and lace those.  I have re soldered some
> > that the wires were broke during cleaning.
> >
> > I grabbed this one when they scrapped the machine 20 years ago, it is
> > dated 1971, I was a college freshman learning machine code
> > programming, Fortran and Cobol, ah how times have changed..."
> >
> > Steve
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: TechNet [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Steve Gregory
> > Sent: Thursday, May 23, 2013 11:02 AM
> > To: [log in to unmask]
> > Subject: [TN] NTC: Pat Goodyear "Whatzit" Photos
> >
> > Hey All,
> >
> >
> >
> > Pat Goodyear is probably unsubscribed now  :o(  but he sent me some
> > photos on Tuesday to post on my page. From his email:
> >
> >
> >
> > Steve,
> >
> > I am sending a couple of jpgs of XXXX, can you post them with
> > what-is-it titles?  See if we can stir up some old memories....
> >
> >
> >
> > So I have posted them. Anybody have any ideas of what this is?
> >
> >
> >
> > http://stevezeva.homestead.com/Whatzit1.JPG
> >
> >
> >
> > http://stevezeva.homestead.com/Whatzit2.JPG
> >
> >
> >
> > http://stevezeva.homestead.com/Whatzit3.JPG
> >
> >
> >
> > He let me know what it is. I'll keep that to myself for a while to see
> > if anybody really knows....
> >
> >
> >
> > Steve
> >
> >
> >
> >
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