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Article #210950Re: IBM 9020 FAA/ATC Systems from 1960's
From: Chris Bigos
Date: Sun, 19 Aug 2001 16:46
Date: Sun, 19 Aug 2001 16:46
34 lines
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3203 bytes
> "I remember those special display processing op codes like > "Convert and Sort" and "Convert Wx Lines", and "Repack Symbols". These > special micro-coded instructions were the equivalent of 2 racks of CDC > equipment in the hard wired logic of the 60s. I was in awe, and still am, > of the engineering and test that went into these display oriented microcoded > instructions." > > -- > John Varela To my mind "awesome" is exactly the right adjective to use! However, I am rather blinkered as the only mainframes I have knowledge of are the 360-50 and 360-65 as used in the 9020, and I was a maintenance engineer rather than a software/systems engineer. That's why I posed the question in the first place. In the next couple of weeks I'll OCR the write-up of the Repack Symbols instruction from the FETOM and post a link to it. Then the real experts can judge and give their opinion. Of course, a lot depends on the definition of 'complex'. I guess I was using the length of the instruction write-up in the FETOM as an indicator. The RPSB instruction has about 28 pages of small-print double-column text - far more than most of the other instructions! Not sure why it was called Repack Symbols. The primary function was to update a block of data on the controller's PVD (radar tube) to show current real time aircraft position and other data of interest. Not exactly a general purpose instruction, but still a bona-fide 360 op code. Chris. Email: Chris...@COLDmail.com (Make the obvious temperature change to the spam deflector)
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Path: mbox-mo1.pugleaf.net!archiver1.google.com!newsfeed.google.com!sn-xit-02!supernews.com!newsfeed.direct.ca!look.ca!btnet-peer0!btnet!news5-gui.server.ntli.net!ntli.net!news6-win.server.ntlworld.com.POSTED!not-for-mail From: "Chris Bigos" <Chris...@COLDmail.com> Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers References: <7HU77.9333$TM5.980906@typhoon.southeast.rr.com> <memo.20010727094436.36989A@mikekingston.compulink.co.uk> <vd2NzVOTNb7v-pn2-vdi55dTSr5Cy@dialup-63.208.164.65.Dial1.Washington2.Level3.net> <jwU87.26231$J37.6143999@typhoon.southeast.rr.com> <vd2NzVOTNb7v-pn2-S9FIPi2udxUW@dialup-63.208.164.94.Dial1.Washington2.Level3.net> <9k3oan$t35$1@top.mitre.org> <vd2NzVOTNb7v-pn2-kRuq3Z30rY3O@dialup-209.244.87.87.Dial1.Washington2.Level3.net> <9l0m6j$la3$1@top.mitre.org> <K2Tc7.108947$TM5.16755795@typhoon.southeast.rr.com> <6aie7.52269$e%3.8225465@news2-win.server.ntlworld.com> <NKQS2gVdCOMx-pn2-dpnmKrl9jKHL@dialup-64.157.50.39.Dial1.Washington1.Level3.net> Subject: Re: IBM 9020 FAA/ATC Systems from 1960's Lines: 37 X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2462.0000 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2462.0000 Message-ID: <yaSf7.6499$in6.1133248@news6-win.server.ntlworld.com> Date: Sun, 19 Aug 2001 17:46:37 +0100 NNTP-Posting-Host: 213.105.161.20 X-Complaints-To: ab...@virgin.net X-Trace: news6-win.server.ntlworld.com 998240030 213.105.161.20 (Sun, 19 Aug 2001 17:53:50 BST) NNTP-Posting-Date: Sun, 19 Aug 2001 17:53:50 BST Organization: Virgin Net Usenet Service MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit