https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_650
These were quite popular during the mid 50s up
until the early 60s. Compared to other brands
they were CHEAP - biz and schools could afford them.
First known install was for an insurance company.
In truth, check the instruction set, they were
closer to what we'd now call a 'programmable
calculator' rather than a general-purpose computer.
However, cleverly employed, they could still be
very useful.
Some of the instructions were very CISC ... like
'PCH' for writing to a punch card. Clearly there
was a lot of hidden code that one instruction
evoked.
Tubes/valves ... 125Khz, not Mhz or Ghz, clock
speed. Instruction speeds measured in milliseconds.
1000 to 4000 WORDS of disk memory. Maybe around
40 instructions per second ...
A variety of add-on units.
Odd base-10 decimal words. Program an emulator in
shitty Python on yer laptop and it'd be likely
thousands of times faster than the original unit :-)
Oh, typical setup, *6000* pounds of metal.
Plus 2000 pounds of airconditioning.
On 3 Jul 2025 12:03:55 GMT, Allodoxaphobia wrote:
Plus 2000 pounds of airconditioning.
Don't knock it. The shrine to the IBM 360/30 was the only building on
campus with A/C.
I remember those old 'data centers' - COLD COLD !
Everyone wore jackets and fuzzy (wool, not synth)
socks.
In actual fact, it was usually possible to find a happy medium where
both the people and the computers were comfortable - but a lot of people couldn't handle the concept. I remember getting into "thermostat wars"
when visiting customer sites. I would sneak the thermostat up into the comfortable zone, and when the customer staff walked in they'd crank it
right back down.
On 2025-07-05, c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> wrote:
I remember those old 'data centers' - COLD COLD !
Everyone wore jackets and fuzzy (wool, not synth)
socks.
There was a belief that computer rooms had to be ice-cold
for computers to operate properly. Most people took this
to extremes, hence the need for heavy sweaters even on hot
summer days.
In actual fact, it was usually possible to find a happy medium
where both the people and the computers were comfortable - but
a lot of people couldn't handle the concept. I remember getting
into "thermostat wars" when visiting customer sites. I would
sneak the thermostat up into the comfortable zone, and when
the customer staff walked in they'd crank it right back down.
Within a certain range, it was not the partitular temperature
that caused problems, but variations in temperature. I once
worked in a small room where the air conditioner was as big
as the computer. You couldn't leave papers lying around
because the fans in the air conditioner would blow them
all over the place. The customer would shut down everything
at the end of the day, and start things back up the next
morning. The machine was quite flaky. When the CE came
in to investigate, he pulled one of the main circuit boards
and a VLSI chip fell off it. The thermal cycling had caused
the chips to literally walk right out of their sockets.
Once the customer left everything on 24/7, the problems
went away.
The customer would shut down everything at the end of the day, and
start things back up the next morning. The machine was quite flaky.
When the CE came in to investigate, he pulled one of the main
circuit boards and a VLSI chip fell off it. The thermal cycling had
caused the chips to literally walk right out of their sockets.
The “big” computers were noticeably more vulnerable than little micros
in one respect: sensitivity to power fluctuations. The least little
brownout and our VAX machines would be down for about the 15 minutes it
took to recheck and remount their filesystems and go through the rest of
the boot process. Whereas the little machines on our desks wouldn’t even notice a thing.
On Sat, 05 Jul 2025 13:30:01 GMT
Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> wrote:
When the CE came in to investigate, he pulled one of the main circuit
boards and a VLSI chip fell off it. The thermal cycling had caused
the chips to literally walk right out of their sockets.
Hah, wow - "chip creep" is a fairly common cause of marginal behavior
in old home computers (particular in the era of NMOS ICs,) but that's
the most extreme case I've heard of!
Ordinary oxidation of the pins and sockets, especially with
hot-running chips, can become a big problem too, even more in a humid
environment. Used to have a couple of the old full-size IBM-PC boards
full of DRAM chips. About twice a year they'd get flakey. Had to kind
pry up rows of chips and jam them back in again - which broke the
oxidation layer. Gold-plated pins and sockets are worth the extra few
cents.
On Mon, 7 Jul 2025 17:52:40 -0400, c186282 wrote:
Ordinary oxidation of the pins and sockets, especially with
hot-running chips, can become a big problem too, even more in a humid
environment. Used to have a couple of the old full-size IBM-PC boards
full of DRAM chips. About twice a year they'd get flakey. Had to kind
pry up rows of chips and jam them back in again - which broke the
oxidation layer. Gold-plated pins and sockets are worth the extra few
cents.
Shades of the Pink Pearl solution!
On Mon, 7 Jul 2025 17:52:40 -0400, c186282 wrote:
Ordinary oxidation of the pins and sockets, especially with
hot-running chips, can become a big problem too, even more in a humid
environment. Used to have a couple of the old full-size IBM-PC boards
full of DRAM chips. About twice a year they'd get flakey. Had to kind
pry up rows of chips and jam them back in again - which broke the
oxidation layer. Gold-plated pins and sockets are worth the extra few
cents.
Shades of the Pink Pearl solution!
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