[Info-vax] CPU Refresher for Programmers

[IanD]

On Wednesday, January 20, 2016 at 6:32:21 AM UTC+11, Chris Scheers wrote:
> MICHAEL W FARRELL wrote:
> > I once had to support a system that ran on one of those machines.  It 
> > had core memory.
> > 
<snip>

> 
> If it had core memory, it was one of the early NOVA machines.  (Roughly 
> equivalent to a PDP-11.)
> 

I worked with a guy who said he worked on the first core memory machine in Australia. He came out from the UK as a young technician to help with the install of it and never went back

Wish I had listened more to his stories, he occasionally would tell us about the core and the share mass of wires and the huge size of the machine overall. He never lost enthusiasm for technology and marveled at the power of the Vax's and new technology as they came into being. He was already an older man when I knew him but never lamented at older technologies replacement except at the loss of the the craftsmanship that went into the systems.
He was probably one of the most decent people I have ever had the pleasure of knowing.

The oldest technology I ever had hands on experience with was punched cards, actually they were not even punched, you used a marking pen to full in the parts of the card which a reader took as being punched. I remember the frustration getting your program run results back the next day only to find you filled in one wrong part of the card! 

I certainly don't lament the passing of certain technologies