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A Short History of Computers In the Movies

Esther Schindler writes "The big screen has always tried to keep step with technology usually unsuccessfully. Peter Salus looks at how the film industry has treated computing. For a long time, the 'product placement' of big iron was limited to a few brands, primarily Burroughs. For instance: 'Batman: The Movie and Fantastic Voyage (both 1966) revert to the archaic Burroughs B205, though Fantastic Voyage also shows an IBM AN/FSQ-7 Combat Direction Central. At 250 tons for each installation (there were about two dozen) the AN/FSQ-7 was the largest computer ever built, with 60,000 vacuum tubes and a requirement of 3 megawatts of power to perform 75,000 ips for regional radar centers. The last IBM AN/FSQ-7, at Luke Air Force Base in Arizona, was demolished in February 1984.' Fun reading, I think."

2 of 165 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Unix command line in Tron Legacy by Stormwatch · · Score: 4, Informative

    That was an Unix system. More precisely, it was Silicon Graphics' IRIX with the fsn file viewer.

  2. Re:TV Repair by ebno-10db · · Score: 4, Informative

    going from ~12 tubes to 60k

    They used tricks, like reducing the filament voltage, to improve tube life. Nevertheless it was a problem, and I think these new solid state models show promise.