Running A Univac 1219 Computer From 1969
Added 2024-04-15 23:30:28 +0000 UTCThanks to the Vintage Computer Federation - https://vcfed.org/
Comments
My favorite part is them using an Arduino with an antique floppy drive to emulate an even older paper tape for a Univac. That just tickles me.
Hrogthor
2024-04-16 14:51:52 +0000 UTCA place I used to work at had a PDP-11/45 and the tape drive had a vacuum loader
Daniel Bingamon
2024-04-16 10:19:21 +0000 UTCMy early career was running Control Data 6400 and 6600 systems. I just loved working with large scale hardware. The CDC tape drives were much bigger with vertical vacuum chambers about a metre high - auto-loading. Getting nostalgic now !
Bob Pockney
2024-04-16 07:34:26 +0000 UTCYes indeed, the combination of 400 Hz power and all the fans made for a noisy but very distinctive environment. Bliss !
Bob Pockney
2024-04-16 07:30:22 +0000 UTCThat was neat. Beautiful hardware. The standards were so high back in the day, so you get this longevity. So was the price-tag. it's still here, still running, still in amazing condition. On the other hand, I'm imagining trying to thread that paper tape in the heat of battle, and feeling like it might be wishful thinking to incorporate stuff as intricate is this into a naval vessel.
Brandon Lewis
2024-04-16 04:28:55 +0000 UTCIn 1977, while in the US Navy, I learned to hand-program the CP-642 military computer, a kissing cousin of the Univac 1212. We bootstrapped the system from cold-iron, first hand-loading a short program via the front panel buttons and switches to access the paper-tape reader/punch, then loading a paper tape (which we had also made) to let us access a tape drive, then loading a program from a system tape to load a simple command line editor to let us interact with the computer via a teletype terminal.
BobC
2024-04-16 02:19:29 +0000 UTCOne of the early mainframes I worked on was a Univac 9400, roughly the same era as this 1219. The 9400 maxed out at 256K of plated wire memory, but still no virtual memory capability. It's rare to see any machine of that era still running.
Paul Schaefer
2024-04-16 01:13:12 +0000 UTCA little before my time in computers, which began in the 80s. It's been a long time since I've heard the whirr of a machine room. Thanks for the Memories Fran.
Dr Andy Hill
2024-04-15 23:42:36 +0000 UTCIt's only a few years younger than me, but seems to be in better condition! This is what the future used to look like. Fantastic!
David Peaker
2024-04-15 23:41:33 +0000 UTC
