On Mon, 22 Jul 2019 19:20:33 +0000, Seymour J Metz wrote:
>I recall hearing about a UNIVAC shipboard computer where the drum ripped loose
>from the deck when the ship was maneuvering quickly.
>
I have heard this story called apocryphal, as on the FASTRAND page:
https://www.fourmilab.ch/documents/univac/fastrand.html
But it states that the model II had counterrotating drums to nullify
precessional effects due to earth's rotation(!) Can't both be true.
>... And I as there when an IBM 2305 did drivek, after multiple power failures,
>let out a scream like the wailing of the damned and left nicely polished disks
>and a pile of brown dust. IBM promised that they would have it up in an
>absurdly short (but still too long) time - and did.
>
Did they reconstitute the brown dust?
-- gil
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