Article View: alt.folklore.computers
Article #1293Re: Anyone (else) own a Cardiac?
From: r... Robert Krawitz
Date: Mon, 12 Feb 1990 23:44
Date: Mon, 12 Feb 1990 23:44
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In article <29...@draken.nada.kth.se>, ianf@nada (Ian Feldman) writes: ]In article <65...@internal.Apple.COM> c...@Apple.COM (Christopher Pettus) writes ]about early "computers": ]> ]> Well, I suppose you could count "Cardiac" (sic), a cardboard sliding-part ]> based computer that was used in my high school's introduction to computers ]> class. Does anyone else remember (or even have one of) _those_? ] ] Yea, I have one still, bought it by mailorder for US$ 12.- from Bell ] Labs (I think; can't remember properly). Great stuff... a _real_ ] paper-computer with one register, 100 memory locations, programmed in ] 3-digit decimal code using a 10-command assembly language, complete ] with a pointer to the current memory cell in the shape of a lady-bug ;-) I got my paws on a few of them back in elementary school (for some reason one of the teachers got a whole bunch of them & handed them out to all interested parties). I remember that the PC (ladybug) kept getting lost, so I modified it by attaching it with a piece of wire (one of my more successful hardware hacks :-) ). ] I only ever wrote one and a half program for it though... some sort ] of a generic "add two values and output it in cell 100" routine from ] the book and (half of) something else that was even simpler than that. The double precision arithmetic was neat, though. I could probably still dig the thing out next time I visit my parents. -- ames >>>>>>>>> | Robert Krawitz <r...@think.com> 245 First St. bloom-beacon > |think!rlk (postmaster) Cambridge, MA 02142 harvard >>>>>> . Thinking Machines Corp. (617)876-1111
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Path: mbox-mo1.pugleaf.net!gmdzi!unido!mcsun!uunet!tank!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!samsung!think!think.com From: r...@think.com (Robert Krawitz) Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers Subject: Re: Anyone (else) own a Cardiac? Message-ID: <33900@news.Think.COM> Date: 12 Feb 90 23:44:41 GMT References: <6822@tekgvs.LABS.TEK.COM> <840@jethro.Corp.Sun.COM> <4816@brazos.Rice.edu> <6598@internal.Apple.COM> <2904@draken.nada.kth.se> Sender: ne...@Think.COM Reply-To: r...@think.com (Robert Krawitz) Distribution: alt Organization: Thinking Machines Corp., Cambridge MA Lines: 31 Posted: Tue Feb 13 00:44:41 1990 In-reply-to: ianf@nada.kth.se (Ian Feldman) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit