Does anyone have details about the STC ZEBRA? Tony?

From: Hans B Pufal <hansp_at_aconit.org>
Date: Sun Jan 13 07:07:54 2002

Derek Peschel wrote:

> STC = Stantec = Standard Telephone and Cable. They sold a truly strange
> computer called the ZEBRA. It was designed to be cheap (it used a drum
> for storage and did arithmetic serially).
>
> The instruction format is unusual -- 15 function bits (I think each affects
> a gate) and a 12-bit address of a drum location and a 5-bit address of a
> "fast store" location (basically a small number of registers). The amount
> of logic in the machine is small, so the instruction decoding is simple
> in a sense. But the logic is connected in very subtle ways -- two things
> can happen independently, or an instruction can set a whole sequence
> of events in motion.
>
> There is an emulator for this machine; I have some of the literature
> about it too. But I don't have the manual or the schematics, and the
> literature I have just doesn't make the design "click" into place
> in my head. The emulator code is not very intuitive either. So that's
> why I'm hoping someone else has heard of this machine.
>
> -- Derek


... Stantec Zebra, was developed from a hypothetical machine devised by
Dr. W. L. van der Poel of the Nteherlands Post Office. The original
Zebra was a medium sized scientific computer with drum store and valve
circuits.

Zebra stands for : Zeer Eenvoudige Binaire Reken Automat
or Very Simple Binary Calculating Machine


I snagged a set of manuals and marketing literature about the beastie as
follows:

1 Some Advantages of Zebra Programming 9 pages

2 A Brief Outline of what Stantec has
    done and is doing - March 1959 21 pages

3 Stantec Zebra
    Electronic Digital Computer 7 pages
    {marketing lit)

4 An Introduction to Stantec Zebra 13 pages

5 Notes on the Stantec Computing System 4 pages

6 A Outline of the Functional Design
    of the Stantec Zebra Computer 42 pages

7 Stantec Computing Systems 16 pages
    {marketing glossy}

8 Applications of Zebra ~50 pages
    {marketing papers}

I think you want 4 and 6. I'll see about scanning them (and the others)
for you.

  -- hbp
Received on Sun Jan 13 2002 - 07:07:54 GMT