🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <10...@milton.acs.washington.edu> fet...@milton.acs.washington.edu (David Fetrow) writes:
>
 It was replaced in the mid-80's with a couple boxes the size of Coke machines. The
>rumour was they paid for them out of the AIR CONDITIONING budget for Bonnie. I very much
>regret not having tried to get a piece of that for a souvenier after they were
>decomissioned. 
>
>-- 
> -dave fetrow-                     fet...@bones.biostat.washington.edu
> dfetrow@uwalocke (bitnet)         {uunet}!uw-beaver!uw-entropy!fetrow 
>

	There is a portion of "CLYDE" , most probably a section
of the maintenance console (billions of flashing lights), at both
the Smithsonian in D.C., and the Boston Computing Museum(?). I
have some relics of the system but no, you can't have them.

	Also watch for (CLYDE, SAGE, Q7, whatever) in low-budget
sci-fi movies and even on SOAP (Bert gets abducted by aliens in
UFO's ).

				Pat

In article <10...@milton.acs.washington.edu> fet...@milton.acs.washington.edu (David Fetrow) writes:
>
>  In 1978 I was nearing graduation from High School and my Dad was trying to talk
>me into the Air Force (BOTH my parents were Air Force).
>
> Anyway; he knew I was computer crazy so he wrangled permission to let me see the
>big computer that did the air traffic in the Pacific NorthWest, in the hopes that
>I'd be more interested in the Air Force afterwards.

Oh God, was that the machine at McChord Air Force Base?  I took a tour of it,
yes a tour of it in '80.  It was truly remarkable.  There was a real
blinkinlights panel, and miles upon miles of corridors full of tubes.

The sergeant who showed me around claimed (proudly) that they were going
solid state.  With tube emulators.  The storage devices were drums slightly
smaller than the 55 gal. oil ones ("travel at 90 miles an hour"). The amazing
thing was the speed.  They claimed that the computer was so fast it could do
an addition in less than 1/1000th of a second and find a number in memory in
less than 1/800th. 

I aksed about cooling and was told that the big building next to the computer
building, the one about the same size, was the air conditioner.  If it and its
backups failed there was approximately a 10 minute grace period before the
machine melted.  I can believe that they paid for the replacement with a 
year's worth of air conditioning.  I think they could have done it just
selling the gold and copper at scrap prices.

In article <10...@milton.acs.washington.edu> fet...@milton.acs.washington.edu (David Fetrow) writes:
[Description of obsolete A.F. Air Traffic Control Computer Deleted]

> It was replaced in the mid-80's with a couple boxes the size of Coke machines. The
>rumour was they paid for them out of the AIR CONDITIONING budget for Bonnie. I very much
>regret not having tried to get a piece of that for a souvenier after they were
>decomissioned. 

Tulsa Approach Control still uses an ENIAC computer very similar to the 
one described in the orginal article. It has a whole (large) room
all to itself, and hordes of personnel attending it. It was
originally used by NORAD to track incoming missles.

The thing that has me worried is that Tulsa Approach Control is
*proud* to have this beastie tracking their traffic!
worried about it is that Tulsa
-- 
       Dan Flak - McCaw Cellular Communications Inc., 201 Elliot Ave W.,
    Suite 105, Seattle, Wa 98119, 206-283-2658, (usenet: thebes!mcgp1!flak)

In article <1989Dec19....@IDA.ORG> rwex@IDA.ORG.UUCP (Richard Wexelblat) writes:
>In article <3024@mcgp1.UUCP> flak@mcgp1.UUCP (Dan Flak) writes:
>>Tulsa Approach Control still uses an ENIAC computer very similar to the 
>
>I'm disappointed that no one has yet commented on the above.  There was,
>of course, one (only) ENIAC, completed at the Moore School in the late
>40s and then eventually sent to the Aberdeen Proving Ground.  
>-- 
>--Dick Wexelblat  (rw...@ida.org) 703 824 5511
>  Hack mir nisht kein chaynik.

And then, of course, it was on display in the Smithsonian Museum of American
History.  (or at least parts of it were)  I know it was there 4 years ago, but
when I went to visit it this summer, that exhibit had been replaced.

So now i assume that its somewhere in the basement...

BCNU
Priz