----- Original Message -----
From: "Dave Wade" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Friday, June 05, 2020 7:39 PM
-----Original Message-----
From: IBM Mainframe Assembler List <ASSEMBLER-
[email protected]> On Behalf Of [email protected]
Sent: 05 June 2020 00:39
To: [email protected]
On 2020-06-05 08:24, Seymour J Metz wrote:
> Thanks.
>
> My understanding is that delay lines using a solid medium were more
> reliable than Williams Tubes,
That's right.
> so using them on slow machines seems
> reasonable..
Pilot ACE was the fastest machine in the world in 1951.
DEUCE ran at the same speed. Clock rate 1Mhz.
If not the fastest in the world in 1955, one of the fastest.
ACE 1956(?) was even faster, about one-third faster clock rate.
But the "Ace" used Mercury delay lines, and the reports I have from an EDSAC
user was that the Mercury Delay Lines on EDSAC were unreliable and very
temperature sensitive.
The EDSAC delay lines probably had not been perfected by then.
Those on DEUCE were very reliable, running for years without
giving any trouble.
The long tanks of 32 words were kept in a large oven mainitaining
temperature at around 48 degrees Centigrade. I think that the
quadruple word stores were in small ovens.
You probably are not interested to know that both Mercury Delay lines and
Williams Tubes came out of research to de-clutter radar.
Dave
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