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Updating the Computer, Circa 1969

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the first-move-the-larger-stone-doorstop dept.

Coudal points out a "Swell article from UK Magazine 'Design' from 1969," excerpting "Designing a computer is a continuous process in which technological breakthroughs must be matched by new hardware, and new hardware by new software, without invalidating the systems already in use."

20 of 124 comments (clear)

  1. Conversational Computing by (1+-sqrt(5))*(2**-1) · · Score: 5, Interesting
    From TFA:
    The 1903A [...] can handle conversational computing on nine remote consoles.
    “Conversational computing” is a fantastic euphemism for command-line-interaction; more sophisticated, in any case, than the point-and-grunt interface of today's hoi polloi.

    My theory is that computing and humanity interrelate: in an environment where Latin is taught alongside math, your users and developers are sharper and more humane.

    1. Re:Conversational Computing by CRCulver · · Score: 3, Insightful

      My theory is that computing and humanity interrelate: in an environment where Latin is taught alongside math, your users and developers are sharper and more humane.

      Why Latin? It's really no different than any other language, it doesn't make you more intelligent or allow you to express concepts any other language can't. All human languages are functionally equal, and while some might have ideas encoded in single lexical units (although please don't believe that myth about Eskimos and snow), all languages can express all concepts through circumlocutions. And if you want to say that Latin is teaches the learner something special about structure due to its synthetic nature, Russian or any other Slavonic language (or half of the languages worldwide) would do just the same.

      Latin is vital for two things, one being able to read Roman literature or works in fields influenced by Latin-speaking culture such as law, or in understanding the genetic affiliation of languages in the Indo-European language family. Otherwise, it's nothing special and shouldn't be taught to anyone as just a matter of course.

    2. Re:Conversational Computing by Arker · · Score: 4, Insightful

      No, of course the language per se is not particularly special, at least not in ways that are unique to it in broad outlines. The point however is what that language connects you with. The literature, a HUGE chunk of the literature of western civilisation. The classic and medieval european literature is overwhelmingly in Latin, because that was quite simply the language literate people all over western europe wrote in. And, of course, it also helps to understand the underpinnings of ALL the Romance languages. On top of that, it's crucial to understanding much of the more formal parts of the English language, even though English is not, actually, a Romance language, because so much of our terminology, in science, in law, and so forth, comes from Latin.

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    3. Re:Conversational Computing by CRCulver · · Score: 3, Informative

      So you don't subscribe to the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis?

      No, nor do most linguists.

      For example, even though the Pirahã (and others) have no words for numbers over two and resultingly cannot grasp even basic arithmatic

      The Piraha situation has recently been attacked as wishful thinking on behalf of its major researcher. There's plenty out there that's critical of it.

      Or to gain a deeper understanding of any writings in a language derived frm it - Including English

      Yes, this was included in my professing the usefulness of Latin for understanding culture influenced by Latin.

      though it has too much from the Germanic side of the family, with a Greek uncle sneaking in the mix somewhere along the way, to count as a proper Romance language

      A language's genetic affiliation is decided by phonological correspondences in the morphology, so English would be a Germanic language no matter how many French words it absorbed. To give a similar situation as an example, Armenian is still in its own branch even though most of its lexicon was replaced by Persian loans.

    4. Re:Conversational Computing by Tri0de · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Respectfully, I think Latin is a very effective language for all kinds of communication. Many Latin words have more universal meaning then English, French or Russian phrases. "Ad hoc" is a great example of a concise term with a precise meaning that needs no translation.
      There is an advantage to a dead language; unlike English meanings aren't mutatingl thus you can often get a better feel for exactly what someone from a different era and different culture was saying without the problem of words such as "gay", "Stupid" or "sick" having very different meanings a few generations later.
      'Good' language is that which communicates what and as you intend, be it technical jargon, slang, Oxford English, Spanglish; if the sender and receptor send and receive the right message it's good language; withing that context Latin can, and often is, highly effective.

      --
      "Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts."
    5. Re:Conversational Computing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Actually, that's debatable. English draws much of its vocabulary from French (thanks to the Norman Invasion of England in 1066), while it gets a lot of its grammar and structure from its Germanic roots. English is probably more accurately considered a Romance-influenced Germanic tongue. Interestingly, the language we know as English is really a creation of the linguistic forces that existed in England a thousand or more years ago. A little Anglo, and little Saxon, a little French, and a good measure of the local Celtic tongues to give it some flavor. How many other languages can you think of that have three words to describe one concept, each derived from a different source (anger, ire, and wrath, for those of you who are wondering)?

  2. Oh, sure by ScrewMaster · · Score: 3, Informative

    without invalidating the systems already in use.

    Everyone knows that Intel and Microsoft have never invalidated a system already in use.

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    The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
  3. Come on. . . by Who235 · · Score: 4, Funny

    I read about that 37 years ago on Digg.

  4. l 903A central processor by Ankou · · Score: 3, Funny

    If you put your ear against it you can hear the hampsters running!

    1. Re:l 903A central processor by Joebert · · Score: 4, Funny

      And if you put your ear against the hamsters, they'll bite the shit out of you.

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  5. tagged as "rawwrrrr" by bunions · · Score: 3, Funny

    The girl in the photo on the first page is H-A-W-T HOT!

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  6. Portable version by marciot · · Score: 4, Funny

    Bah.... I much rather have a portable computer...

  7. A blast from the past... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Yeah, 1969 was about the last time attractive women in skirts were seen anywhere near a data center... :)

  8. Sales department puffery by wbean · · Score: 5, Interesting

    That article is a typical pice of sales department puffery. If you really want to know what it was like to design a computer in those days read Tracy Kidder's Soul of a New Machine. It chronicles the efforts by Data General engineers to create a new computer. At the time I was working as an engineer for Honeywell's EDP (Electronic Data Processing) division and I can vouch for the accuracy of Kidder's reporting. I recognized all the problems and all the actors even though it was a different company.

    At a given point in the development of computers a lot of people end up working on the same problems and often come up with similar solutions. While I was at Honeywell they bought GE's computer division and we got to see the design documents for GE's new computer. It was very interesting reading since we could look at each turning point in the design and say: "Oh, they decided to do it that way." All of the problems were ones that we'd worked on and the solutions were all ones that we'd considered. For the most part they'd made the same decisions we had. It was an experience that's given me a real respect for the notion that an invention is "in the air." It isn't necessarily because the problems are being widely discussed but more that a given state of technology dictates certain questions and that the solutions follow logically from the questions.

  9. Real Soon Now by hob42 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I found this other article even more interesting - 1974, issue 311, "In Praise of Hydrogen." It talks about how easily the School of Automotive Studies converted a traditional internal combustion engine to hydrogen, and how with only one major area of research (storage of hydrogen) we should expect our dependance on gasoline to be quickly and easily eliminated.

    Talk about vaporware (pun not intended, though also funny).

  10. Re:Let's not forget the user-interface... by bmo · · Score: 3, Informative

    "That Olivetti unit looks like it was made 20 years later..."

    Probably because the Olivetti extensively used plastic or die-cast white metal in the case. If you look at the old ugly stuff like the KSR, the cases were _steel_ which is why they look so bland. You can't get the same shapes by stamping steel like you can with plastic-injection molding or die-casting and the style of the Olivetti simply screams "molded parts".

    Back then it was a cultural thing. Plastic was "cheap" and steel meant quality. If the case wasn't heavy enough to kill someone with, it wasn't quality.

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    BMO

  11. Successful model 1911 series... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny
    International Computers Ltd. whose highly successful 1900 Series computer... Blah blah blah. That series is dead.

    However, the Colt 1911 model still works fine - not really a computer, unless it involves questions where the answer is BANG!

  12. British Computer Joke by Clark_Griswold · · Score: 3, Funny

    Q: Why don't the British make computers anymore? A: Because they couldn't find a way to make them leak oil.

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    -- Mace only makes me hornier.
  13. Re:Let's not forget the user-interface... by NoMaster · · Score: 3, Interesting
    Plastic was "cheap" and steel meant quality. If the case wasn't heavy enough to kill someone with, it wasn't quality.
    Tell that to the Honeywell Rosy 26 teleprinter in my garage. Plastic case, 20 years younger than the 2 Model 100's sitting next to it, much the same feature set, but 3x the weight. I was going to throw it out today, but damned near killed myself just trying to lift it!

    FWIW, I suspect the real reason that Teletype Model 33 looks so ancient is that, from looking at the internals, it appears to be a clone/ripoff of a Siemens Model 100 or a Creed Model 47 - both much earlier models - updated with an "electronic" keyboard. IIRC, Teletype Corp bought (or maybe partnered with) the UK-based Creed.

    (Slashdotters with a mechanical bent really should look into the old electromechanical teleprinters. They're amazing machines; a real tribute to the ingenuity of their designers. Given a motor spinning at 3000 RPM, and no electronics, how would you convert a 5-bit code to printed text?)

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  14. Re:Yeah, but.... by Gleng · · Score: 3, Funny

    No, but it'll probaby run NetBSD.

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