Xref: utzoo comp.sys.misc:1502 comp.misc:2671 comp.arch:5269 Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!mailrus!ames!pasteur!ucbvax!unisoft!gethen!farren From: farren@gethen.UUCP (Michael J. Farren) Newsgroups: comp.sys.misc,comp.misc,comp.arch Subject: Re: Info wanted on eniac computers Message-ID: <958@gethen.UUCP> Date: 24 Jun 88 10:13:18 GMT References: <198@marque.mu.edu><17496@glacier.STANFORD.EDU> Reply-To: farren@gethen.UUCP (Michael J. Farren) Organization: There's Unix there in Oakland Lines: 15 webber@porthos.rutgers.edu (Bob Webber) writes: >Actually the ENIAC is quite fascinating to simulate. It has the most important >feature a computer can have -- a neon bulb for each flip flop. Nope, the most important feature is that found in the Sperry NAVDAC, used on Polaris submarines once upon a time. That machine used gas-discharge triodes for its accumulator, so the lights you saw WERE the register. Not only did you have less propagation delay, since the lights didn't have to be connected to the flip-flops with wires, the lights were also a very pretty color of blue. -- Michael J. Farren | "INVESTIGATE your point of view, don't just {ucbvax, uunet, hoptoad}! | dogmatize it! Reflect on it and re-evaluate unisoft!gethen!farren | it. You may want to change your mind someday." gethen!farren@lll-winken.llnl.gov ----- Tom Reingold, from alt.flame