Double bit storage (was: Williams Tube memory, Selectron question, and Charactron)

From: Hans Franke <Hans.Franke_at_mch20.sbs.de>
Date: Mon Aug 16 09:10:17 1999

> Upon the date 06:30 PM 8/15/99 -0400, CLASSICCMP_at_trailing-edge.com said
> something like:
> >>> Question for the UKer's: is a tube rectifier (no control grid, just an
> >>> anode and a cathode) called a "valve"?
> >> Have you heard of a check valve?
> >I've also heard of a won't gate and have a copy here of the data sheet
> >for a write-only-memory :-).
> Was that the Signetics joke WOM data sheet from back in the late 70's? I
> got a copy of that around my files somewhere. What a hoot that was :)

Well, I guess it's a running gag - there are incarnations
known in magazines throughout the 80s (like a kit in a mc
(a german techie magazine back then) issue) or variations
like the enhanced NUL device kit (to reduce the time needed
to copy a file into NUL), or the WORN Disk drive (Write Once
Read Never), as a spin off from the development of the WORM.
There are also connected technological break thrus like the
half bit and quater bit storage (or the double bit cell).

Over here its a must in some magazines to offer a special
extra serious story in their April issue. AFAIK this tradition
was coined by mc in 1981 with a small notice about a Basic
programm where they didn't know the function ... Thousens
of people did key it in just to be sent into fools day ...
Starting from this day they did publish one 'story' every
year - always well hidden. Later on c't took the stake (mc
closed in the early 90s - there is no market for a real
hardware orientaded full featured magazine - at least thats
what they had been told). Shure some 'user' magazines also
try until the mid 90s, but well, just a different league.

Gruss
H.

--
Der Kopf ist auch nur ein Auswuchs wie der kleine Zeh.
H.Achternbusch
Received on Mon Aug 16 1999 - 09:10:17 BST

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