Thread View: alt.folklore.computers
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Started by Anne Lynn Wheeler
Sat, 07 Jul 2018 17:55
Manned Orbiting Laboratory Declassified: Inside a US Military Space Station
Author: Anne Lynn Wheeler
Date: Sat, 07 Jul 2018 17:55
Date: Sat, 07 Jul 2018 17:55
40 lines
3283 bytes
3283 bytes
Manned Orbiting Laboratory Declassified: Inside a US Military Space Station https://www.space.com/34661-manned-orbiting-laboratory-declassified-photos.html There was a special three-processor (triplex) 360/67 done for MOL program. Standard 360/67 multiprocessor "channel director" had configuration switches that could reconfigure memory, processors, i/o channels, etc for various reasons (including removing failed components from configurations). The channel director configuration switches were visible by software in the "control register" values. The MOL triplex 360/67 channel director was enhanced so that software could change the switch settings by changing the values in the control registers. 360/67 functional characteristics. 360/67 was originally designed to have up to four processors (although all production multiprocessors only was for 2-processors, except for the one built for MOL) and multiprocessor configuration had unique 360 features, like all processors could address all channels. Pg 31-33 shows control register values (for up to four processor configuration) http://bitsavers.org/pdf/ibm/360/funcChar/A27-2719-0_360-67_funcChar.pdf image of 360/67 "blue card" (inside also gives control register layout for up to four processor configuration) http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/folds.jpg trivia ... at the science center, I had gotten the "blue card" from one of the inventors of GML (i.e. invented at the science center in 1969, GML chosen because they are the first letters of the inventors last name). science center posts http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#545tech GML posts http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submain.html#sgml Multiprocessor (&/or compare-and-swap) posts http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#smp -- virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970
Re: Manned Orbiting Laboratory Declassified: Inside a US Military Space Station
Author: Anne Lynn Wheeler
Date: Sun, 08 Jul 2018 19:14
Date: Sun, 08 Jul 2018 19:14
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3626 bytes
Lockheed(?) Sunnyvale was working on MOL and the triplex 360/67. There was a cp67-360/67 meeting sponsored in Sunnyvale that included some of the Lockheed(?) and IBM people on the project. There must have also been some people from Monterey NPG ... but I don't remember. When MOL was canceled, an IBMer on the project joined the IBM cambridge science center at MIT. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manned_Orbiting_Laboratory He is also person the that invented compare-and-swap instruction when he was working on fine grain multiprocessor locking for CP/67 (Compare-And-Swap chosen because CAS are his initials). CSC attempted to get CAS added to (new) 370 architecture ... but it was originally rejected. The 370 architecture owners said the POK favorite son operating system people said that CAS was needed for multiprocessor support, that test-and-set instruction was more than sufficient. They said to justify it for 370, we would have to come up with some justifications that didn't require multiprocessor. thus was born the example uses for large multithreaded applications (whether they ran on single processor or multiprocessor configurations) ... examples that still appear in mainframe principles of operation appendix. http://publibz.boulder.ibm.com/cgi-bin/bookmgr_OS390/BOOKS/dz9zr003/A.6?DT=20040504121320 Other trivia: ... before windows there was ms/dos https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MS-DOS before ms/dos there was seattle computer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seattle_Computer_Products before seattle computer there was cp/m, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CP/M before cp/m, kildall worked on cp67/cms at npg (gone 404, but lives on at the wayback machine) http://web.archive.org/web/20071011100440/http://www.khet.net/gmc/docs/museum/en_cpmName.html npg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naval_Postgraduate_School cp67/cms (aka precursor to vm/370) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CP/CMS before cp67/cms ... there was virtual machine, interactive computing cp/40 http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/cp40seas1982.txt -- virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970
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