working magnetic drum stores?

From: Rick Bensene <rickb_at_bensene.com>
Date: Thu Mar 25 22:04:43 2004

> Weren't those two 1950's "desk calculators" that were
> anounced here drum based?
>
There were a number of electronic 'desk' (meaning the 'size of a desk')
calculators
that were developed in the late '50's and early '60's. These included
the IBM 610 "Autopoint",
the Monroe Monrobot I, II, and III, the Clary DE-60, and others that I
can't recall off
the top of my head. These machines were generally programmable in some,
generally
by storing learned steps (learn mode programming) on the drum or paper
tape. All had magnetic
drums for storage of working registers, and, in the case of the IBM 610,
the drum also stored
program steps. These machines all utilized tube or early transistor
electronics, and generally interfaced to punched card or paper tape
units, and IBM output typewriters or Friden Flexowriters for output.
These machines were the precursors to
desktop-sized programmable calculators such as the Mathatronics
Mathatron, Olivetti Programma 101, Wang LOCI and 300-series, Monroe EPIC
2000/3000, Friden 1152, Wyle Scientific, and the HP 9100A.

In the late 1960's, SCM made a machine called the 7816 that used a
fixed-head magnetic disk
for register storage. It was a four function calculator in a 'desk'
that had two paper tape readers, two paper tape punches, an I/O
typewriter, and a calculating unit that was programmable via the paper
tape readers. It used transistor logic, and a bit-serial architecture.
Received on Thu Mar 25 2004 - 22:04:43 GMT