ebay: Antique UNICAC computer memory planes

From: Eric Smith <eric_at_brouhaha.com>
Date: Fri Nov 20 12:28:10 1998

Chuck wrote:
> One of the myth's they always told us was they all had to be
> made by hand - there wasn't a machine that could thread the
> row/column and sense wires for mass production. Is there any
> rumor to this truth?

The row/column drive line insertion was eventually automated, although
amazingly enough there was a period of time for which manual assembly was
less expensive than automatic assembly.

The cores were poured onto a metal plate with indentations where they were
supposed to reside. Each indentation had a pinhole through which a vacuum
pump provided suction to keep the cores in place. The plate was vibrated
until all the cores were properly seated.

Once the cores were corrrectly positioned, long hollow needles with wire
threaded through them were driven through the rows (or columns). The wires
were attached to the frame, and the needles withdrawn.

AFAIK, however, the sense lines were still threaded by hand.

Eric
Received on Fri Nov 20 1998 - 12:28:10 GMT