Thanks for the information! With all the responses I've been getting, I
am most happy I saved this thing from who knows what :).
Nice information on the site you gave. BTW, the largest core *I've* seen
was used on a PDP16 computer on the constants card. IIRC, the cores had
about 1/2" OD and wires were physically routed through the cores by hand
to define the constants used by the particular program running.
Lawrence Wilkinson wrote:
>
> On Sun, 2004-03-28 at 22:02, Marvin Johnston wrote:
> > At the TRW swap meet yesterday, I ran across this box:
> > http://www.rain.org/~marvin/box.jpg. The reason I bought it was that the
> > overlays had some words that rang of old mainframe computers. There are
> > three double sided overlays to define what the LEDs mean with
> > designations such as "Print Scan Counter", "Print Character Generator",
> > etc. Another overlay has the heading "2314/2841 TROS SAL BITS". There
> > are two rectangular connectors with cables to connect to whatever this
> > thing is doing something with:). The only label on the box says
> > "Infinite Computer". Anyone have any idea what this thing is and is used
> > for?
>
> The 2314 is an IBM disk drive (28MB) which has an integrated controller
> (the CHM has one next to their 360/30). The 2841 is a standalone
> controller for the 2311 drives (7MB) and other DASD units.
>
> TROS (Transformer Read Only Storage) is the microcode storage used in
> these units, so what you have is a (presumably multipurpose) Field
> Engineering unit. See http://www.punch-card.co.uk/storage.htm
>
> The other overlays are almost certainly for a line printer.
>
> The 2841 had a small internal diagnostic panel, but presumably not
> enough lights to display the entire microcode word.
>
> I'm not sure when the 2314 was introduced, maybe 1966/7 or so.
>
> LJW
>
> --
> Lawrence Wilkinson lawrence_at_ljw.me.uk
> Ph +44(0)1869-811059 http://www.ljw.me.uk
Received on Tue Mar 30 2004 - 00:52:20 BST
