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April 1, 1972: Write Only Memory
Embedded Geek writes "While digging around Jack Ganssle's site, I came across an amusing prank from days gone by. In 1972 Signetics recognized April Fools day by printing a full color datasheet (scanned sheet 1 and sheet 2 here) for a Write-Only Memory (which accepts data but never reads it back), a considerable effort when documents were made via literal "cut and paste". Packed with jokes both obvious (a graph of "number of pins left versus number of insertions") and subtle ("Vdd = 0V +/- 2%") it's worth a chuckle."
This has been in The Jargon Lexicon for ages. Don't all slashdotters know of it?
Ne mæg werig mod wyrde wiðstondan, ne se hreo hyge helpe gefremman.
On the BBC Micro you could add 16Kbyte banks of 'sideways RAM'. I remember that some upgrades had a 'read protect' switch, which sounded very odd. I think it was for compatibility; read protect made the upgrade effectively invisible.
-- Ed Avis ed@membled.com
Yuck, don't know how that rogue character got there - I'll try again: Pic 1 and Pic 2.
#define ROSE any_other_name
They even planned far ahead. In 1972, "VFF = 6.3VAC" was obvious in itself, but for you youngsters that don't know about vacuum tubes they added the footnote "6. For the filament heater, of course."
Yes, it's now a very old joke, but it's been fun watching a new "generation" rediscover it every five years or so.
Friends who work at Philips (which bought Signetics years ago) tell me that the 25120 datasheet may be updated and reissued. Keep an eye out for it once Philips gets a usable website.
Lacking <sarcasm> tags,
There was an amusing press release that accompanied the Signetics WOM.