OT: how big would it be?

From: Eric Smith <eric_at_brouhaha.com>
Date: Fri Oct 22 14:07:04 1999

Philip.Belben_at_pgen.com wrote:
> I was assuming ECL for two reasons - if you use early transistors
> (Ge), ECL would probably be the only way to go at all fast; and ECL
> gives the advantage of easy differential line drivers and receivers
> for long interconnects.

You're absolutely right. These are the exact reasons that IBM's early
transistor computers (7090, Stretch/7030) used non-saturating logic.

But they did you PCBs with wire-wrapped backplanes.

Their tube computers did not use PCBs, but instead eight-tube pluggable
units that were hand-wired.

And someone will no doubt feel obliged to correct me if I fail to
mention that the earlier IBM machines such as the 603 multiplier and 604
calculator didn't use the eight-tube pluggable units. That was a later
innovation. I'm not sure whether the 650 used them.
Received on Fri Oct 22 1999 - 14:07:04 BST