billa@ihlpl.ATT.COM (Anderson) (10/13/87)
From ihnp4!ptsfa!lll-tis!lll-lcc!lll-winken!uunet!mnetor!utzoo!henry Sat Oct 10 18:16:09 1987 Path: ihlpl!ihnp4!ptsfa!lll-tis!lll-lcc!lll-winken!uunet!mnetor!utzoo!henry From: henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer) Newsgroups: comp.arch,comp.unix.wizards,comp.os.minix Subject: Re: pdp-11/55 Message-ID: <8740@utzoo.UUCP> Date: 10 Oct 87 23:16:09 GMT References: <1755@ncr-sd.SanDiego.NCR.COM> <275@usl> <29933@sun.uucp> Organization: U of Toronto Zoology Lines: 16 > ... Down the road, a different school at a 60 and was able to > support about the same number of people, so I guess the two machines > were roughly equivalent. Choke cough. No. The 60 was grossly inferior to the 70 in most ways: hardware address space, integer processing speed, I/O bandwidth, etc. Its optional floating-point hardware was (I think) the same as the 70's. Otherwise, it was a piece of junk. There has been persistent speculation that the original 60 was much faster than the one that was finally released to the customers; it is hard to see how it could possibly deserve that model number otherwise. A well-equipped 45 was a better machine, and the 55 could run rings around it. The (slightly later) 44 was superior to the 60 in every way except floating-point, where the 44's lousy FPP (a slight variant of the 34 FPP) held it back. -- "Mir" means "peace", as in | Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology "the war is over; we've won". | {allegra,ihnp4,decvax,utai}!utzoo!henry You may think you won a war, but you keep posting irrelevant messages to comp.os.minix Don't you know how to post to the correct newsgroup? Please learn!C
shair@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (Bob Shair) (01/31/91)
frank@grep.co.uk (Frank Wales) writes: >In article <1991Jan27.083412.14484@watdragon.waterloo.edu> > ccplumb@rose.uwaterloo.ca (Colin Plumb) writes: >>"I am a HAL 9000 Computer. I became operational at H.A.L. Laboratories >>in Urbana, Illinois on the 12th of January, 1992." >> >One assumption which is very true is the pervasiveness of the number >9000 amongst high-end products (Saab 9000, Minolta 9000, HP-9000, VAX 9000...). >I'm sure there's a tremendous numerological significance to it all. :-) >-- I'll confess that I have installed a reasonable number of IBM 9000's in Urbana, Illinois, and that some of them will probably still be running on 12 January, 1992, but I doubt that the word made it all the way to Ceylon... have to have been precognition, anyway!. Is it generally accepted that Clarke picked HAL by taking one step back from IBM, or is that only believed within IBM? -- Bob Shair shair@chgvmic1.iinus1.ibm.com Scientific Computing Specialist SHAIR@UIUCVMD (bitnet) IBM Champaign
ccplumb@rose.uwaterloo.ca (Colin Plumb) (01/31/91)
shair@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (Bob Shair) wrote: >Is it generally accepted that Clarke picked HAL by taking one step >back from IBM, or is that only believed within IBM? Clarke has denied it a hundred times, saying he didn't notice until others pointed it out to him. And in 2010 the book, Chandra (Hal's designer) denies it quite vigorously. I don't think Clarke would bother lying so often. -- -Colin
brett@cayman.amd.com (Brett Stewart) (02/01/91)
In article <1991Jan31.024555.19824@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> shair@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (Bob Shair) writes: >frank@grep.co.uk (Frank Wales) writes: > >Is it generally accepted that Clarke picked HAL by taking one step >back from IBM, or is that only believed within IBM? How 'bout HAL/S, the name of the language in which much Space Shuttle inflight software is written? Brett Stewart Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. +1 512 462 5051 FAX 5900 E. Ben White Blvd MS561 +1 512 462 4336 Telephone Austin, Texas 78741 USA Brett.Stewart@AMD.com
preston@ariel.rice.edu (Preston Briggs) (02/01/91)
brett@cayman.amd.com (Brett Stewart) writes: >How 'bout HAL/S, the name of the language in which much Space >Shuttle inflight software is written? Well, HAL (the language) was named after Hal Liscombe (sp?, I'm losing my memory), the founder of Draper labs at MIT. HAL/S is the subset used for shuttle flight software. Seems like they date to about 1969. Preston Briggs
gillies@cs.uiuc.edu (Don Gillies) (02/01/91)
One of the irritating things about 2010 is that Chandra has been hired away from Illinois and is working at the University of Chicago. This is quite surprising since, as of 1990, Chicago is a theory school (as far as I know). Maybe Clarke is trying to say something about the state funding situation at Illinois..... Don Gillies | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign gillies@cs.uiuc.edu | Digital Computer Lab, 1304 W. Springfield, Urbana IL ---------------------+------------------------------------------------------ "UGH! WAR! ... What is it GOOD FOR? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!" - 60's music lyrics
rhealey@digibd.com (Rob Healey) (02/05/91)
In article <1991Jan31.045101.17431@watdragon.waterloo.edu> ccplumb@rose.uwaterloo.ca (Colin Plumb) writes: >shair@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (Bob Shair) wrote: >>Is it generally accepted that Clarke picked HAL by taking one step >>back from IBM, or is that only believed within IBM? >Clarke has denied it a hundred times, saying he didn't notice until others >pointed it out to him. And in 2010 the book, Chandra (Hal's designer) >denies it quite vigorously. > Since HAL is going to be powered up in the next year, why don't we call H.A.L. labs, ask for the founder, and ask him/her why they named their company H.A.L. labs? B^)... -Rob Speaking for self, not company.
rhealey@digibd.com (Rob Healey) (02/05/91)
In article <1991Jan31.162600.1126@csrd.uiuc.edu> bradley@sp1.csrd.uiuc.edu (David K. Bradley) writes: >Yup. According to Clarke, HAL stands for "Huristic ALgorithmic". >Now, anybody know what SAL stands for? > Sorta ALgorithmic? It was a female personality... B^). Guess I better put my flame suit on..., -Rob Speaking for self, not company.
steve@ibmpa.awdpa.ibm.com (Steve DeJarnett) (02/06/91)
In article <1991Feb04.182044.22523@digibd.com> rhealey@digibd.com (Rob Healey) writes: [ re: Was HAL named by backing off one letter from IBM?? Clarke denies it. ] > Since HAL is going to be powered up in the next year, why don't we > call H.A.L. labs, ask for the founder, and ask him/her why they > named their company H.A.L. labs? B^)... Well, there is a company in Austin, TX (I believe) called HAL, Inc. that was founded by one or more former IBMers. Wonder if they'll announce their first product on Jan. 12, 1992?? :-) Steve DeJarnett Internet: steve@ibmpa.awdpa.ibm.com IBM PSP Palo Alto UUCP: uunet!ibmpa.awdpa.ibm.com!steve (415) 855-3510 IBM VNET: dejarnet at ausvmq These opinions are my own. I doubt IBM wants them.......
ingoldsb@ctycal.UUCP (Terry Ingoldsby) (02/08/91)
In article <1991Jan31.045101.17431@watdragon.waterloo.edu>, ccplumb@rose.uwaterloo.ca (Colin Plumb) writes: > shair@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (Bob Shair) wrote: > >Is it generally accepted that Clarke picked HAL by taking one step > >back from IBM, or is that only believed within IBM? > Clarke has denied it a hundred times, saying he didn't notice until others > pointed it out to him. And in 2010 the book, Chandra (Hal's designer) The possibility still exists that he did not consciously pick HAL, but the letters IBM may have been in his mind. A similar, unresolvable, argument continues about whether J.R.R. Tolkien had World War II in mind when he wrote Lord of the Rings. Tolkien forever denied it, but certain resemblances are striking. Now, back to comp.arch! -- Terry Ingoldsby ctycal!ingoldsb%cpsc.ucalgary.ca Land Information Services or The City of Calgary ...{alberta,ubc-cs,utai}!calgary!ctycal!ingoldsb