🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <65g3r9$8...@bgtnsc03.worldnet.att.net> Dan-
Yert...@worldnet.att.net (Dan Yertzell) writes:

>Does anyone here know the specs of the Honeywell H-200?  It was the
>first machine I ever worked with in school in the 60's, programmed
>it in Fortran and Assembler, etc.  Anyways, I was just curious how it
>compared to todays machines.  Is it possible to talk about mhz ratings
>and such about such an ancient machine?
>
>I remember it had 4 tape drives, a card reader, a card punch, a line
>printer and a teletype style console.  I think it had 16k of memory.
>We had the usual assortment of IBM 029 and 026 keypunch machines, and
>I remember being wowed when we got our first 129.
>
>I only bring this up because I just came across a box full of 30 year
>old program listings and punch cards in my attic.  Quite a nostalgic
>charge.

I dug through my collection of obsolete computer manuals and found
some stuff on the Honeywell 200 series.  (I got to play with a 120,
myself.)  Here are some excerpts from the "Series 200 Summary
Description", second edition, first printing, February 1966,
file number 143.0005.0000.0-012.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

The six processors of Series 200 are the Models 120, 200, 1200,
2200, 4200, and 8200.  The 8200, the most powerful member of the
series, is completely compatible not only with other Series 200
models but also with Honeywell's 800 and 1800 systems.  Because
of its dual processing ability it is described in a separate
publication entitled 'Honeywell Series 200 / Model 8200 Summary
Description', File No. 143.0011.0000.0-191.

Further description of Series 200 within this publication refers
only to the Models 120, 200, 1200, 2200, and 4200.


Processing Dimension

- Memory speeds ranging from 3 microseconds to 188 nanoseconds
  per character

- Memory capacities ranging from 2,048 to 524,288 characters,
  in modular increments

- Up to 30 index registers; flexible nanosecond control memories

- A universal set of powerful instructions affording program
  compatibility between processors

- Instruction and data compatibility with 1401, 1410, 1460, and
  7010 systems

- Advanced programming and memory addressing methods, plus editing
  and multiply/divide operations

- Powerful floating-point capability


Input/Output Dimension

- Up to 16 peripheral operations performed simultaneously with
  computing

- Up to 48 peripheral control units connected to a processor; each
  accomodates one or serval peripheral devices and is equipped with
  an automatic program interrupt facility

- A wide variety of peripheral equipment available in a range of
  performance capabilities, including communication devices, card
  equipment, magnetic tape and paper tape units, mass storage units,
  high-speed printers, banking equipment, and memory-to-memory
  adapter units

- Broad-scale real-time capability that includes an efficient
  interrupt facility, single- and multi-channel communication
  controls (the latter accepting data from up to 63 lines
  simultaneously), multi-level code handling, and a wide range
  of remote terminal facilities


Software Dimension

- Basic Programming System, which provides flexible software modules
  employing self-loading, unit-record techniques for use in small,
  card-oriented installations

- Operating system - Mod 1, which provides semi-centralized, automatic
  control for medium-scale tape- or mass-storage installations

- Operating System - Mod 2, which provides completely centralized,
  highly automated computer management, with a minimum hardware
  overhead requirement, for medium- and large-scale installations
  of all types

- Application Systems, which assist directly in the performance
  of functions which are part of a user organization's operations

------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Moving on to section 2, "Processors", here's a small table giving
execution times of a few instructions.  Detailed execution times
of all instructions are given later in the book for those who are
really interested.  This stuff was nice to have if you were trying
to optimize CPU usage.]

                                   Execution Time, Microseconds
Operation                       Model 120   Model 1200   Model 4200
---------                       ---------   ----------   ----------
Decimal Add                         69          35           10
Compare                             57          29            9
Branch if Character Equal           36          18            7
Move Characters to Word Mark        54          27            8
Floating Multiply                  n/a          56           18

Three-character addresses are used to refer to five-character
operand fields.  Instruction access times are included in the
times shown.  The times for floating multiply refer to operations
using a 36-bit mantissa and a 12-bit exponent.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY OF PROCESSOR CHARACTERISTICS

           Main    Memory       Number  Number of
           Memory  Capacity     of      I/O operations
           Speed   (thousands   Input/  Simultaneous
Processor  (cycle  of           Output  with
Model      time)   characters)  Trunks  Computing
-------------------------------------------------------
120          3        2-32        *         2-3
200          2        4-65       8-16       3-4
1200         1.5     16-131      16         4
2200         1       16-262      16-32      4-8
4200         0.188   65-524      32-48      8-16

* Basic print, card read, card punch controls.
  Tape control and II [sic] I/O trunks optional.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

In order to appreciate the full power of the read/write channel
concept, consider the following statistics.  In one minute, a
Series 200 system equipped with a Model 200 processor having four
read-write channels can:

    read 800 cards;

    punch 10 columns of data into 400 cards;

    print 1300 lines of 120 characters each;

    read or write 4360 tape records of 500 characters;

(or perform any combination of four I/O operations) and in the
same minute, execute 1.25 million instructions.

[That's right, 1.25 million instructions per _minute_, not second.
It's amazing how much work you can get done when you're not
spending all your CPU's power pushing pixels around.]

------------------------------------------------------------------------

The manual goes on to describe the usual assortment of card readers
and punches, printers, drums, and magnetic and paper tape units.
And, further to another thread that's cropped up here from time
to time, Honeywell even had their equivalent of the infamous IBM
2321 data cell.  The description of Honeywell's Mass Memory File
is detailed enough to leave no room for doubt that it's the same
sort of device.  Types 251, 252, and 253 offered storage capacities
of 15, 63, and 317 million characters respectively.

If I had a scanner, I could put up photos of the various pieces of
hardware, complete with smartly-dressed women posing among them.

--
cgi...@sky.bus.com (Charlie Gibbs)
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