At 08:25 AM 2/1/99 +0000, you wrote:
>At 09:19 PM 1/31/99 +0000, Tony wrote:
>
>>> Am amazed you could build a computer like this with ~400 cards ~800 tubes.
>>> That is similar to building a complete computer with 200 SSI TTL chips like
>>> a 7400. Especially since a 24 bit latch could use 24 of the cards. I tried
>>
>>This doesn't sound out of line. The CPU of the PDP8/e on my desk is 3
>>quad cards of TTL, mostly simple gates. Perhapes 250chips total. OK, some
>>of them are more complex (like full adder circuits), but there's nothing
>>that big in there.
>
>-Dave
I should point out the Royal McBee LGP-30:
http://www.users.nwark.com/~rcmahq/jclark/lgp30.htm
It had a mere 113 tubes - lots of diodes forming the logic elements, but still,
a puny number of tubes by any reasonable standard. And in this machine,
they included:
crt display for debugging (presumable not one of the 113 tubes)
flexowriter (keyboard and printer) input and output
drum main storage (32 bit instructions and data)
And it could even give 64 bit products to a 32x32 multiply.
Of course, it *was* a serial computer, but it is still a marvel
of compact design for it's day. Only consumed 1500 watts of single
phase power.
Gary
Received on Mon Feb 01 1999 - 13:11:09 GMT