Thanks for the SIGMA stories. They bring back memories from when I was in
graduate school. I used a SIGMA - 7 in 1971 at the Argonne National
Laboratory High Energy Physics Division in Illinois to analyze elementary
particle events captured on bubble chamber film. I can still recall the
day when the Xerox CE arrived to install a memory upgrade, which consisted
of a 64 KB array of ferrite donuts. It sounds laughable today but at the
time it seemed like an engineering marvel.
- doug
"Fargusson.Alan"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]
tb.ca.gov> To
Sent by: Linux on [email protected]
390 Port cc
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]
IST.EDU> Subject
Re: OT Mainframes (was: 9672 power
requirements)
03/16/2005 12:01
PM
Please respond to
Linux on 390 Port
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]
IST.EDU>
I didn't use CP-V much, but I do remember some odd things about the command
line. There is a subtle difference in "copy file1 to file2", "copy file1
over file2", and "copy file1 after file2". I thought someone should have
written a rename command. Once I miss-typed a command and managed to
redirect all output to a file (for all commands following as well). I
ended up logging out and back in to correct it.
-----Original Message-----
From: Linux on 390 Port [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of
John Campbell
Sent: Wednesday, March 16, 2005 8:53 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: OT Mainframes (was: 9672 power requirements)
The OS for the Xerox Sigma-7 (and Sigma-9s) was called "CP-V" (Control
Program five) and the JCL was, IIRC, called "PCL" (a "pickle deck").
Honeywell took over the 'puter business but didn't do much with it.
The CEs had a diagnostic tape that included System EXercisers (which could
be launched by the command "SEX" or "NEW") and the first program on the
tape was called "hardcore" to ensure that all of the instructions in the
system still worked.
Instead of Z EOD the operator typed "ZAP", the KSR-35 would do a little
dance and type out "THAT'S ALL FOLKS" and the CPU speaker would play the
Star Spangled Banner.
(shakes head) It was a fun system. though there were some oddities. For
instance, CP-V could be crashed by running 256 B *+1s in a row (because the
CPU stalled in re-filling the pipeline and locked out the HS-RAD).
"cat file" was spelled "copy file to me"... and it had the first
meta-assembler I've ever seen. I used to hand-assemble some programs and
toggle 'em in. I learned about channel programming on that beast.
I went from those to TI-960s in late 1977 and then to UNIVAC 1100s in 1979.
--------------------
John R. Campbell, Speaker to Machines (GNUrd) (813) 356-5322 (t/l 697)
Adsumo ergo raptus sum
MacOS X: Because making Unix user-friendly was easier than debugging
Windows.
Red Hat Certified Engineer (#803004680310286)
IBM Certified: IBM AIX 4.3 System Administration, System Support
----- Forwarded by John Campbell/Tampa/IBM on 03/16/2005 11:45 AM -----
"Fargusson.Alan"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED] To:
[email protected]
tb.ca.gov> cc:
Sent by: Linux on Subject: Re: [LINUX-390]
9672 power requirements
390 Port
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]
IST.EDU>
03/16/2005 11:35
AM
Please respond to
Linux on 390 Port
I was going to ignore the "could heat your house" comment, but since David
didn't.
I heard this second hand, so I don't know how true it is. I heard that
someone bought an old Sigma 7 and put it in his basement. Since it put out
a lot of heat he connected it up to his heating ducts and used the Sigma 7
to heat his house.
The Sigma computer systems were made by Sigma Data Systems, which was
bought by Xerox. Xerox eventually left the computer business leaving Sigma
customers without support. The university I graduated from had three Sigma
9s that they were still using when I graduated. Actually one was for parts
for the other two. One of the professors there actually ported the Unix
PCC C compiler to the Sigma operating system (I can't remember what the OS
was called).
-----Original Message-----
From: Linux on 390 Port [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of
David Boyes
Sent: Wednesday, March 16, 2005 5:47 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: 9672 power requirements
> At about 20 kbTU/hr, you could heat your house with it, too.
Funny story:
I can confirm this fact. This winter (which has been particularly cold
in the Washington DC area) our office furnace completely failed --
totally casters-up, no function at all. The MP3000 and the other
processors here generate so much heat that no one noticed that the
heater was offline until someone said "has anyone heard the heater fan
run in the last two weeks?"
The machines and disk units kept the entire office at a comfortable 70
degrees F for at least a month before anyone noticed.
Strange, but true...8-)
-- db
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