Very cool stuff! The digital display in that analog computer is pretty neat. There is a grid of lightbulbs in the back, with the number or letter in front of it. It shines through some optics and displays the result on the front of the module.
I used to work on many of those mainframes, 2966 was superb, runs VME, Virtual Machine Environment. Which is still in use today, although running on some very small Sun servers... The reason? It's so damned good! Happy days, thank you Julian.....
WOW! Great video. Talk about a walk down memory lane! I started my career with the 6 hole paper tape (burnt my fingers on more than one vacuum tube) then went on to get certified to repair nearly every Control Data Corporation SMD series drive, including the 1/2" tape series as well as nearly every Digital Equipment Corps PDP and Vax 11/xxx Series mini computers AND the MicroVax (I am sure I have all those certs around here somewhere). I know it's hard to see everything there is such a short time but would have loved to see an old 8" hard/soft sector floppy disks (huge for their day), DEC/Optimal had a 12" 1.2 GB WO/RM optical drive I'd like to see again... OMG! My granddaughter is right! I am very very very very old :-(
Shared with our entire Uvic computing systems department for "required" viewing over a cup of coffee (or tea) Utterly brilliant! So many memories and so much of this stuff has taken us to where we are today. Cheers and beers!
What an interesting place I missed while I was in the UK. Thanks to your video I was able to see it! Thank you! Well I have one more reason to come to the UK again :)
The ICL 2966 (07:55) takes me back to my days as a young computer operator in the 1980s. All those orange exchangeable disc cabinets. That colour was known as "Hot Tango".
Julian, I'm not much for making comments on RU-vid video's, but I have to say I totally enjoy yours. This video rocks. Please do more like these. Your friend from the other side of the pond :)
Great video Jullian, thanks for providing it to us. It should be noted that Julian also should be mentioned in the museum, not because he is old nor outdated. It's because a prediction he made nearly 14 years ago, in response to the first cameraphone: "It's an obvious move. Eventually all portable gadgets, phone, camera, palm computer must come together in one communications device. - Julian Ilett, UK (BBC News/Science, 2001)". Turns out he got it right! Any predictions for the coming ~15 years Julian?
YES !! I spy an Acorn Electron complete with the Plus 1 Joy Stick and ROM cartridge interface and the Plus 2 (or 3 I can't remember) Single sided single density 3.5" floppy disk drive. That takes me back. I had this set up all but the tape drive, didn't need it because of the disk drive. The Drive was driven by commands starting with an * (Star) they were called star commands. To see a program load in less than 5 seconds was awesome in those days. The build quality was fantastic as the two add-ons were literally bolted together. It got interesting when you wanted to defrag the drive because the computer had so little memory. RAM allocated to the video output was used as storage space while data was moved to and from the drive. This meant there were great chunks of screen being filled up with noise but was actually Byte data, then cleared or over written with new data. Nice system that ran at about half the speed of the BBC Micro.
Excellent report Julien. There is a great fellow/old school here on youtube. He has a four part documentary and I have a feeling he had firsthand doings with Bletchley in its heyday. Love this stuff when you can find it.
Video wasn't long, it was short for such a geek heaven ! 9:56 a Sinclair TV to the right. I've still got mine and it still works. PDP-11 was the Accounts department computer at my first job LOL, good to see this one. Good to see so much of this stuff !
The ANITA calculator was built by Bell Punch of Uxbridge Middlesex. ANITA was -- A New Introduction To Accounting and was indeed the first ever desktop calculator. Bell Punch also did the printing of tickets for every bus company in the UK.
As a member of the BCS Computer Preservation Society, I think you could have had a really fun time being there on the days that they were able to power up the ICL2966 mainframe. I remember booting up those monsters. Took anything from 20 to 30 minutes from cold just to get the main operating system up and running. Voice effect from Monty Python: "Aye. When I were a lad..."
Great stuff Julian, extremely well done piece of videoing. I tried to warn you last time that you'd need at least a week at that place and I'd bet you'd not see everything. I've been twice to date but must go again sometime soon to get updated on all the new goodies. They do great tours of the place (all in the entrance price) and I find them so interesting, try doing the same tour with a different guide and be amazed at all the info that you gain. You're a lucky man living so close and did you know that your entrance price is for as many times as you like within 12 months. Keep up the good work, thanks, I luv 'em. John
John M Thanks John. I did ask about season tickets - there's a 'friend of the museum' thing for £45, but it was also suggested that a good way to spend lots of time there is to become a volunteer. I'm quite tempted.
If I lived closer I certainly would volunteer, especially now that I'm retired and have lots of time on my hands, I'm sure I would know most of that older 'stuff', not from the wartime but soon after. It's about a 260 mile trip and an overnight stay for us but well worth it to see all the things that are there, last time we were there I was talking to one of the fellows there and he told me that they've got rooms and rooms full of 'things' to get on display. Have fun, I'm sure you'd pull quite a few followers in through the gate. Regards John
Didn't see a Sharp MZ80K there. Maybe I'll put it a clause in my will to donate it to the museum. I've got that plus a Sinclair QL and an Amstrad PPC640. Makes you feel old when the stuff you used at school like a Teletype 34 appear in museums as ancient equipment.
brian whittle £16.75 to get into Bletchley Park, but you get an automatic 1-year season ticket. TNMoC is £5 each time you visit. You can visit just part of TNMoC (Tunny and Colossus) for £2.
I may have to pull my VIC 20 and ZX-81 out of the attic. Do modern TV's even have an interface for them? They used a box that connected to the two screw antenna connection.
jusb1066 Yea I guess there was an RCA plug that I assume is a yellow composite out. But this was when TV's only had screw terminal antenna connections.
Oh forgot to add it was a Z(ee)X-81 not a Z(ed)X-81 :). I bought it at the end of the home computer wars for $29. I was going to use it as a robot controller. An Arduino would work better now. I paid $299 for the VIC-20 not including the tape drive.
Cliff Hartle some had rca composite others used the tuner input, modern tv's have both, it was the older tvs where composite was hard to find, commodore c64/vic 20, spectrum, zx81 all used the tuner inputs which can be both screw terminals or the round antenna input, so if you have one in your loft, your modern tv will work
ummm i'm guessing you just read bits as bytes of out of habit so actually those massive drives were only in bits..... and the coil whine from that place....i can hear it on my speakers then again nice vid... doubt i'll ever get to visit such a place (time/monetary constraints)
eisenklad Yes, sorry, I may have got my bits and bytes mixed up. And sorry to all my young viewers who can still hear 20kHz. A world without whines awaits!
8:08 I tried to scan the QR codes, but it didn't work. 9:30 I see an Atari ST down there. I used to have one of those. 10:15 "Most popular"? When we had one of those at school, we always tried *not* to be stuck with this clumsy thing. 13:27 I still have a Palm 5, which I stopped using the moment I found out that it would lose all of its data when it ran out of power.
Well it was called the Trash 80, but I was one who paid a lot of money in the seventies for one, and it made me learn Basic, so it was worth it. I think?
