June 1969: Joined Burroughs and 'met' first computer...

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Posted by DevillEars (A) on August 28, 2014 at 23:11:53

In Reply to: RE: 8 TB hard drives coming posted by robert920rogers@gmail.com on August 27, 2014 at 18:16:08:

... which was a Burroughs B500 running at a local service bureau.

The central processor chassis was the size of one of those Suzuki SUVs and had a maximum RAM capacity (non-volatile magnetic core memory) of 19,2KB and - if you needed disk storage - another cabinet the size of a SpeedQueen laundromat washer which held a head-per-track 5MB hard disk offering 5ms average access time.

But this 'beast' was not what I was employed to program - that turned out to be an electronic accounting machine - the Burroughs E6000. The accounting machine label ensured that the operator console resembled a typewriter on steroids - 22 inch moving carriage plus two fixed printer mechanisms - one, a numeric gang printer, the other a box-writer alphanumeric printer offset by 4.1" from the LSD position of the gang printer. Memory was non-volatile magnetic core with a capacity of 400 words of 12 digits plus sign with data storage catered for via magnetic striped ledger cards as unit records.

First project was to write a complete suite of applications for the municipality of a nearby town of 100,000 inhabitants. The suite eventually comprised property tax billing, water and electricity billing, other sundry services billing, accounts receivable and accounts payable, weekly wages and monthly salaries, a general ledger plus a loan repayment schedule (amortisation on a processor with just add/subtract/multiply/divide as arithmetic functions...

A year of that and I'd been convinced to switch to sales... :)
DevillEars

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Follow Ups Full Thread

Topic - 8 TB hard drives coming - LWR 09:08:23 08/27/14 (15)

needed if you copy a lot of blu-ray disc... - Green Lantern 12:52:05 08/28/14 (0)

RE: 8 TB hard drives coming - robert920rogers@gmail.com 18:16:08 08/27/14 (6)

June 1969: Joined Burroughs and 'met' first computer... - DevillEars 23:11:53 08/28/14 (0)

I remember the days of people smuggling 1 Meg RAM chips - David S. 10:40:52 08/28/14 (0)

In '89 or so, it cost me $499 to add a 10MB hard drive to my IBM PS/2 model 25 - vinyl phanatic 23:05:34 08/27/14 (0)

1991; a Tandy 486, 4mb ram, 130mb hard drive, 14.4 modem..Windows was shipped with 5 floppy disc -nt - Green Lantern 19:29:03 08/27/14 (2)

Fortran and Basic on punch cards, 1982. Osborn computers. - free.ranger 19:44:46 08/27/14 (1)

RE: Fortran and Basic on punch cards, 1982. Osborn computers. - robert920rogers@gmail.com 17:36:18 08/28/14 (0)

Advice: steer away from Western Digital units, although they may the first up. - free.ranger 15:17:04 08/27/14 (1)

RE: Advice: steer away from Western Digital units, although they may the first up. - pictureguy 14:52:10 08/28/14 (0)

RE: 8 TB hard drives coming - J.Mac 13:57:07 08/27/14 (2)

RE: 8 TB hard drives coming - Rod M 13:07:49 08/28/14 (0)

678 bucks for a 6TB Enterprise drive - LWR 14:13:55 08/27/14 (0)

RE: 8 TB hard drives coming - pictureguy 13:31:50 08/27/14 (1)

Not raid - LWR 13:46:40 08/27/14 (0)

Follow Ups

June 1969: Joined Burroughs and 'met' first computer... - DevillEars 23:11:53 08/28/14 (0)

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