[Elecraft] Computers in the Stone Age

[Michael Walker]

I started on the AN/FSQ7

64,000 tubes
512k of actual core memory -- 33 bit words
drums for buffers

And, we had 2 of these... system A and system B

air conditioners that could make 20 tons of ice in a day.

We called it Norad and it was 600ft underground in VE3 land.  I worked for
IBM at the time.

Mike va3mw



On Wed, May 28, 2014 at 2:59 PM, <kb2m at comcast.net> wrote:

> Ok, here goes... I remember in 1982 buying a 2k memory add on module for
> my Telephonix desktop computer for $2200.00. I bought a loaded XT in 1985
> for  $11,700 it had 2 10 meg hard drives, and something called a 370
> option, which allowed me to port my mainframe IBM object code from my radar
> analysis toolset and get it to run under VM/PC, on the PC. We also
> developed the first 3rd party ISA card on the IBM buss. I remember sitting
> down for a morning with several IBM engineers going over machine cycles.
> They told us we couldn't do it, we did. I remember making my own DB-9's by
> hacksawing down a DB-25. I had the first AT on the eastcoast, when I
> spilled a cup of coffee on the keyboard, I had to drive 70 miles to the IBM
> office in Philly to get a replacement...
>
> 73 Jeff kb2m
>
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