🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <GUMBY.90J...@Gang-of-Four.Stanford.EDU>, gu...@Gang-of-Four.Stanford.EDU (David Vinayak Wallace) writes:
> I used to have a WOM datasheet, from Intel, if I remember.  This was
> from about '78 or '79 if I remember (when the 4116 was hot stuff, and
> everybody had 2102's in their machines).
> 
> It looked like a legit datasheet: timings, power requirements, etc.  I
> think I got it in a mailing with a bunch of real datasheets.  Now lost
> of course...anyone got a copy?


If MY memory serves me, the WOM kit was an offer from Hewlett
Packard in, oh, maybe 1975.  It came with a chip, data sheet, and
a set of glasses with a rubber nose and mustache as a WOM
designer disguise.  They only mailed out a few of them before
they ran out.  I have long ago lost the chip and data sheet, but
I still haul out the rubber nose and disguise from time to
appropriate time.

-- 

Jim Harvey                        |      "Ask not for whom the bell
Michigan Bell Telephone           |      tolls and you will only pay
29777 Telegraph                   |      Station-to-Station rates."
Southfield, Mich. 48034           | 

ulysses!gamma!mibte!jbh
     

The original WOM data sheet was produced by Signetics in the early 70's.
It had a neat list of applications such as overflow registers (bit buckets),
non intelligent weapons systems and a list of other goodys.  Amazing claims
were made for its speed and capacity.  It was supposed to be easily cooled
with a six foot fan mounted 2 inches from the device.  If it failed more air
was needed.  The data sheet was probably one of the best spoofs I have ever
seen.  They actually sent them to their customers.

National Semiconductors produced a book of aplications notes for their line
of quad op amps a few months later.  It was titled "Quadzilla" and had
a picture of a big dip chip attacking a town (made of electronic components)
on the cover.
-- 
Andy Pitts andy@rbdc.UUCP  : "God is an overwhelming responsibility"
...!gatech!kd4nc!rbdc!andy :        --Jethro Tull--

I remember another silly device I saw as a joke in "Electronic Design".
It appeared in 1984 or so and was called the NIXONFET.
It was a three terminal device with said terminals named as follows:
1) waterGATE
2) unimpeachableSOURCE
3) economicDRAIN.
it was noted that the device operated in the fully depleted mode.

-- 
Just the facts Ma'am

|I remember another silly device I saw as a joke in "Electronic Design".

This is starting to get away from computers, but Elektor, an
electronics construction magazine, regularly inserts an "April Fool"
circuit in their collections. One circuit consisted of two diodes back
to back, and a wire link shorting them.

The caption for the circuit was: Zero Volt Reference.

A addendum noted that the circuit was even more effective without the
diodes.

In alt.folklore.computers k...@cs.rochester.edu writes:
< 
< This is starting to get away from computers, but Elektor, an
< electronics construction magazine, regularly inserts an "April Fool"
< circuit in their collections. [...]

I fondly remember the one where they built a car keyhole heater,
when you car's door lock has ice inside and you can't unlock it.

They did it by making a fake key with some electronics on the handle which
were supposed to limit the current from your battery through the fake key and
the keyhole to the battery's ground.

You might wonder where to get the current from. Another car's battery
obviously won't work without the two cars actually touching and/or risking some
nifty sparks between them.

The Elektor guys decided to use your car's cigarette lighter.

In article <972@rbdc.UUCP>, andy@rbdc.UUCP (Andy Pitts) writes:
> The original WOM data sheet was produced by Signetics in the early 70's.

	1st time I saw it was in 1971 or '72, when PROMs were fairly
	new and EPROMs hadn't hit the streets yet.  Signetics made
	a nice ROM simulator then, and it was a necessity.

	We turned some PROMS into WOM when someone I worked with
	was 1 bit off in setting up to burn a batch.  He realized
	his mistake after 20 chips at $70 per chip, for a $1400
	"oops".  Remember that's 1972 bucks -- about 1/3 the price
	of an early low-end PDP-11.


----------------
Paul Raveling
Rave...@isi.edu

Yes, it was Signetics.  My copy is badly faded and probably wouldn't copy
very well, but it's two hilarious pages long.  The pages are numbered
12-10 and 12-11; I believe that this was actually printed in an early
Signetics databook; the format is identical anyway.  The full title is
"Signetics  Fully Encoded, 9046 x N, Random Access, Write-Only-Memory"
and the part number is 25120.  Particular gems include the two pins
labelled "6.3 vac" with a footnote reference that turns out to
say "For the filaments, what else!"  [those of us who hacked tubes will
get that; the rest of you never mind]; the bit previously mentioned about
the 6-foot fan two inches from the device; and the wonderful graph that
shows a steeply descending curve and is labelled "Number of socket
insertions" vs. "Number of remaining pins".  There are also graphs
for "Temperature vs. Bit Capacity" and "Selling Price vs. AQL".

Anyway, send me 50 cents (stamps preferred) and I'll mail you a copy
if you really want it.  As mentioned above, though, the quality may
not be worth it.  (Maybe if someone has an *original* of this, they
could offer *me* a copy....!)
          Robert Bickford
          WOM Spec Copies
          700 Fifth Avenue
          San Rafael  CA  94901

-- 
  Robert Bickford        {apple,pacbell,hplabs,ucbvax}!well!rab
  r...@well.sf.ca.us      /-------------------------------------\
                         | Don't Blame Me: I Voted Libertarian |
                         \-------------------------------------/