On 2/27/24 10:10, ben via cctalk wrote: > On 2024-02-27 9:20 a.m., CAREY SCHUG via cctalk wrote: >> It's not a cassette, but the PB-440 (Pitney-Bowes), renamed Raytheon >> 440 and its upgrade the raytheon 520 had a large reel paper tape with >> a bidirectional read and an "operating system" Load the os, say we >> want to run fortran, spin down to fortran, read the program in on 80 >> column cards (probably 2 pass, I don'trecall), automatically reload >> the monitor when done, read and execute the program from cards. >> Frequently used programs could be on the OS paper tape reel. >> >> btw, that computer was user level microcode. multiple "machine" >> definitions, with typical 24 bit word, one instruction set optimized >> for fortran execution, one for fortran compilation, etc (don't >> remember exactly, as I only programmed in the microcode of mostly 2 >> micro instructions per word).
Is the "PB" Pitney-Bowes or Packard-Bell? I note that only because that Raytheon bought out Packard-Bell's computer operation and re-dubbed their models. So a Packard-Bell PB 250 became the Raytheon PB 250. As regards the 440, it's on my short list of interesting "hybrid" computers of the 1960s, which was a hot topic then: It was part of the TRICE setup: http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/raytheon/trice/TRICE_440_Oct64.pdf --Chuck
