Paper tape is immune from magnetic interference (of course, back then
there was no public documentation of EMF weapons, right?).
Another paper tape story... when I was in the US Marines (1971-1977)
working in the Tactical Air Command Center at MCAS Cherry Point, North
Carolina one summer, an important computer kept failing at random
intervals. That computer translated radar "screen paints" (bright blobs)
into symbols that we could interpret on large displays (i.e. different
symbols for different aircraft; and different symbols between friendlies
and bogies).
When examined after each failure, the core (yes, real core) memory was
always wiped clean. That computer (and its tech) was housed in a metal
box (IIRC, about 6'x10', 8' high) which was transportable on the back of a
2 1/2 ton ("6-by") truck, or by helicopter> It was located about 15 feet
from another similar box with all the radar gear inside, and large radar
dish on the top. After a few days of random core wipes, someone noticed
that the core wipe only happened when the door to the computer hut was
momentarily opened as the radar dish swept past. While aimed much higher,
there was enough residual power from the dish to wipe the computer's core
memory clean. Memory was reloaded (back on track now) from dependable
paper tape.
Someone was stationed outside the computer hut for the rest of that day
until it could be turned around with the door faced AWAY from the radar
dish sweep.
Mike Walter
Hewitt Associates
Any opinions expressed herein are mine alone and do not necessarily
represent the opinions or policies of Hewitt Associates.
USMCR Sergeant, 1971-1977
"Huegel, Thomas" <thue...@kable.com>
Sent by: "The IBM z/VM Operating System" <IBMVM@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU>
05/29/2009 11:49 AM
Please respond to
"The IBM z/VM Operating System" <IBMVM@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU>
To
IBMVM@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU
cc
Subject
Re: IBM 1401
Trivia.. Recently I went to the Titan-II ICBM silo (now a museum) just
outside Tucson, AZ ..
Interesting fact, they loaded the program for the nucleaur tipped
ballistic missiles guidence system from a paper tape..
-----Original Message-----
From: The IBM z/VM Operating System [mailto:ib...@listserv.uark.edu] On
Behalf Of Jim Bohnsack
Sent: Friday, May 29, 2009 10:40 AM
To: IBMVM@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU
Subject: Re: IBM 1401
No, the IBM 2671 paper tape device was a reader only. The paper tape
punches were from older systems. I guess paper tape got punched on
teletype machines in S/360 days. I had a customer with a 2671.
I started keeping IBM sales manual pages that were "discard this page"
when updates came out in about the 1970 time frame. I realized that I
was throwing out history, so I kept some that I thought were important.
Also I hung on to old IBM Blue Letters as product announcements were
called. When I moved last summer, I shipped about a 6" tall stack of
them to the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_History_Museum
Jim
Mike Walter wrote:
> And just this morning I had been wondering about those who have
> contributed to this thread, wondering how they could remember so much
> detail (even if some memory had a few parity checks). Thus, how much
> truly important personal information had been paged out of their real
> memory (perhaps to paper tape?), being forever lost to permit these
> technical details to remain? :-)
>
> Obviously, over the years Lynn has kept more records than a radio
> station
> (oops: wrong media -- and now: wrong era).
>
> Mike Walter
> Hewitt Associates
> Any opinions expressed herein are mine alone and do not necessarily
> represent the opinions or policies of Hewitt Associates.
>
>
--
Jim Bohnsack
Cornell University
(972) 596-6377 home/office
(972) 342-5823 cell
jab...@cornell.edu
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