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List:       linux-390
Subject:    Re: OT: TCU in Fort Worth
From:       Chip Davis <chip () aresti ! com>
Date:       2011-09-17 21:00:45
Message-ID: 4E750A7D.4080009 () aresti ! com
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On 9/16/11 01:48 Henry Schaffer said:
> Did you know that the 1620 did arithmetic by table lookup - and it stored
> the tables in RAM - so you had to load the tables each time it was turned
> on.  One could load octal tables and then it did octal arithmetic!

... which was why it was known as the "Cadet" (Can't Add, Doesn't Even
Try).  Since memory was addressed in base 10, you could do math in
octal but not hex.

Also, the somewhat lengthy delay after power-up was give that massive
20,000-character core memory time to warm up.  The rest of the frames
had fans for cooling but the memory box had heaters.

-Chip-

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