tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8790289735302476857.post1054495344536479564..comments2024-03-28T05:37:48.502-04:00Comments on The Toronto Dreams Project Historical Ephemera Blog: Mabel The Swimming Wonder Monkey, or The Great Dead Monkey ProjectAdam Bunchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07330281017966163295noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8790289735302476857.post-88218213990365565582014-07-11T19:13:04.464-04:002014-07-11T19:13:04.464-04:00Thanks for taking the time to share all that!Thanks for taking the time to share all that!Adam Bunchhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14112071438967577096noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8790289735302476857.post-79947393463803269162014-06-25T12:54:35.033-04:002014-06-25T12:54:35.033-04:00Hmmm, it looks like some crow eating might be in o...Hmmm, it looks like some crow eating might be in order. In fact, there was a PDP-11, and that was the problem. It seems they were using 11/05's to collect data, which was then fed to a 11/44 for writing to disk. Someone else, in a different department, wanted that ported to their new VAX (god knows why) and that's where the bug came in, because they eliminated the 11/05's as front-ends. It was directly connected, so it was possible to write directly to the electrodes.<br /><br />Also interesting is the spin-off, which seems to suggest that a later machine was the one where Henry Spencer wrote cnews. I'll have to ask him if its the same machine.Maury Markowitzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05774701137224246246noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8790289735302476857.post-63798751652475579552014-06-25T12:46:07.542-04:002014-06-25T12:46:07.542-04:00It appears I entered this on the wrong page, so I&...It appears I entered this on the wrong page, so I'll try again here.<br /><br />Both stories seem highly suspect.<br /><br />The VAX 11/780 came out in late 1977, and I don’t believe the first one arrived at UofT until some time later. Looking for references from the era, it appears they didn’t have one until the early 1980s. UWatterloo, often on the forefront of computer tech in this period, didn’t get their first VAX until 1981, if I'm reading the history correctly.<br /><br />But more questionable is the use of a VAX for this sort of thing. The VAX-11 was so-named because it was designed as a follow-on to another DEC product, the PDP-11. The PDP-11 was, in turn, a major development of an earlier machine, the PDP-8.<br /><br />I mention this because the PDP-8 was one of the first computers that was widely used as a generic number cruncher in many science experiments. It was so successful in this role that a number of companies started producing systems aimed specifically at this niche. Perhaps most popular among them was the Data General Nova system. The Nova cost about $8000 in a basic version, and had all sorts of places you could hook in test equipment.<br /><br />For instance, here's an image of the world's first CAT scanner:<br /><br />https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-ray_computed_tomography#mediaviewer/File:Emi1010.jpg<br /><br />On the far right you’ll see a white-ish coloured box on the rack with a bunch of buttons on it. Right above that is a much darker box. That box is a Nova. Now you have to imagine the amount of number crunching that goes into making a CAT scan… if the Nova can do THAT, trust me, it can do anything being described in this article. In its sleep.<br /><br />Now the Nova was basically a PDP-8. The PDP-11 built on that to make a machine that could handle more devices, like disk drives and such. The VAX-11 took that into the 32-bit world, which is needed for handling large accounting files and such. So while the PDP-8 and Nova were used right into the 1980s for science experiments, the PDP-11 was rare, and I've never heard a single case where the VAX was used in this role. It simply wasn't designed for this, and far too expensive.<br /><br />So, basically, I call BS. It's possible the original author was confusing several machines, perhaps the PDP-11, but even then it seems unlikely.Maury Markowitzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05774701137224246246noreply@blogger.com