[GreenKeys] Teletype and electronics........

[Jim Haynes]

I for one was glad to see the item about an electronic keyboard.

On Tue, 9 Apr 2013, Linger, Mike wrote:
> ELECTRONICS, including the Teletype model 40 which is all electronics and
> for the most part I consider it junk, but I know some people like it.
> 
Sadly, all the Model 40s seem to be inoperative because the type carrier
belts have all turned to crumbs.  In its day it was quite a piece of work.
The idea goes back to the IBM 1403 line printer of the late 1950s attached
to the 1401 computer with its magnetic core memory.  Quite a step forward
in complexity compared with the drum printers of its day.  Then the idea
was used again in the G.E. Termi-Net 300 and 1200 machines about 1968,
with implementaton in custom MOS ICs.  It's sad that the Termi-Net 
printers are so little known; quite an interesting machine coming out of
a company that had never built anything like it before, nor since.
And then the Model 40 printer took Teletype into the in-house manufacture
of MOS ICs.  But used mechanical principles to get most of the hammer
force from the motor rather than from the electronic circuits.

Teletype was remarkably successfuly at getting into the IC business
in-house; although it's very questionable whether it was a good strategic
direction for the company.  Back when ICs were new technology I worked
only a couple of desks away from the young engineer who went on to become
the designer of the Model 40 printer logic.