Microcode and the Single Girl

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2 total messages Started by mast... Steve Masticola Tue, 01 May 1990 20:42

#2676

Author: mast... Steve Masticola
Date: Tue, 01 May 1990 20:42

42 lines
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Here's one that I heard from the prof who taught me assembly language
in the days when IBMosaurs roamed the earth. It seems that a 360 (one
of the microcoded variety) had been delivered to MIT, and the local
hardware hacks were eager to see what made it tick. So they got a
woman student to play "sweet young thing" to the IBM field service
type. The conversation that ensued went something like this:

SYT:	I've heard SO MUCH about this, what do you call it,
	"microcode". Is it like a program you put into the computer to
	change it into another computer?

FST:	Well, you don't really put it into the computer. It's wired
	into the machine, but it's still a program.

SYT:	Wired into the machine? I don't understand. If it's a program,
	don't you read it in?

FST:	Not really... it's like a permanent program, so we wire it
	into something called a "diode matrix."

SYT:	What's that?

FST:	It's a circuit board with diodes on it that represents the
	program. To change the program, you have to change the diodes.
	So you don't read it in, but you can change it. And that
	changes the computer's instruction set - the way it behaves.

SYT:	Oh, neat! Could I see?

(FST obligingly opens a panel and shows SYT the board.)

FST:	That's the diode matrix for the microcode.

SYT:	Do the diodes represent ones or zeroes?

(FST's neurons fire. He shuts the cover rapidly.)

History does not record what happened after that... :-)


- Steve.

Re: Microcode and the Single Girl

#2677

Author: pet... Peter Deutsch
Date: Fri, 04 May 1990 21:42

20 lines
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In article <May.1.16.41....@athos.rutgers.edu>, mast...@athos.rutgers.edu (Steve Masticola) writes:
> 
> Here's one that I heard from the prof who taught me assembly language
> in the days when IBMosaurs roamed the earth. It seems that a 360 (one
> of the microcoded variety) had been delivered to MIT, and the local
> hardware hacks were eager to see what made it tick. So they got a
> woman student to play "sweet young thing" to the IBM field service
> type. The conversation that ensued went something like this:
> 
[ *** conversation deleted *** ]

> 
> (FST's neurons fire. He shuts the cover rapidly.)

Shouldn't that be "neuron fires"?

:-) :-) :-) :-) 


				- peterd

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