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Cyhist Dec 03 1996 A
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Date: Tue, 3 Dec 1996 12:40:43 EST
Reply-To: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@SJUVM.STJOHNS.EDU>
Sender: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@SJUVM.STJOHNS.EDU>
From: Charles Retter <retter@ARL.MIL>
Organization: US Army Research Laboratory Subject: Re: Age of 8 bit computing
______________________________________________________________________
Community Memory: Discussion List on the History of Cyberspace ______________________________________________________________________
On Wed, 27 Nov 1996, A. Padgett Peterson P.E. Information Security wrote:
>[.......]
>
>Shouldn't that be the "Age of 8-bit home computing" ? Goes back considerably
>
>before 1977, have DEC PGP-8 and DG Nova stuff that goes back to 1969/70 timeframe and those were 8-bit machines, know there must be earlier.
The DEC PDP-8s were 12-bit machines, and they were produced even earlier than 1969, although they were certainly still popular then.
The DG Novas were 16-bit machines produced from about 1969 until 1980. The Nova was not at all byte-oriented. In fact, addresses on DG Novas and Eclipses referred to 16-bit words, so it was awkward to work with bytes.
Of course, these architectures were designed at a time when MSI and core memories were being used (although a few of the later implementations used microprocessors), so they didn't have the extreme space constraints that the early microprocessor architectures had to allow for. Using 8-bit registers and data paths would not have reduced the cost very much.
>1. How well was this computer made? [hardware] DEC stuff was very well made, always thought the cages on the DG equipment seemed a bit flimsy though they rarely failed ("rare failure" had a differnt meaning then). Was glad when mylar tape replaced paper.
Well, DEC used sturdier connectors and card guides, but another reason that DG card cages seemed flimsy was that the boards were so much larger (15" x 15"). I don't recall having much trouble with them in the seven years I worked at DG, though, and you can certainly get a lot of chips on a 15 x 15 board.
Charles Retter
<retter@arl.mil>
______________________________________________________________________
Reply-To: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@SJUVM.STJOHNS.EDU>
Sender: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@SJUVM.STJOHNS.EDU>
From: Charles Retter <retter@ARL.MIL>
Organization: US Army Research Laboratory Subject: Re: Age of 8 bit computing
______________________________________________________________________
Community Memory: Discussion List on the History of Cyberspace ______________________________________________________________________
On Wed, 27 Nov 1996, A. Padgett Peterson P.E. Information Security wrote:
>[.......]
>
>Shouldn't that be the "Age of 8-bit home computing" ? Goes back considerably
>
>before 1977, have DEC PGP-8 and DG Nova stuff that goes back to 1969/70 timeframe and those were 8-bit machines, know there must be earlier.
The DEC PDP-8s were 12-bit machines, and they were produced even earlier than 1969, although they were certainly still popular then.
The DG Novas were 16-bit machines produced from about 1969 until 1980. The Nova was not at all byte-oriented. In fact, addresses on DG Novas and Eclipses referred to 16-bit words, so it was awkward to work with bytes.
Of course, these architectures were designed at a time when MSI and core memories were being used (although a few of the later implementations used microprocessors), so they didn't have the extreme space constraints that the early microprocessor architectures had to allow for. Using 8-bit registers and data paths would not have reduced the cost very much.
>1. How well was this computer made? [hardware] DEC stuff was very well made, always thought the cages on the DG equipment seemed a bit flimsy though they rarely failed ("rare failure" had a differnt meaning then). Was glad when mylar tape replaced paper.
Well, DEC used sturdier connectors and card guides, but another reason that DG card cages seemed flimsy was that the boards were so much larger (15" x 15"). I don't recall having much trouble with them in the seven years I worked at DG, though, and you can certainly get a lot of chips on a 15 x 15 board.
Charles Retter
<retter@arl.mil>
______________________________________________________________________
