hughes@endor.UUCP (06/03/87)
In article <8252@bu-cs.BU.EDU> bzs@bu-cs.BU.EDU (Barry Shein) writes: > ... > >On an opposite note I remember stories of programs which would be run >in the background to exercise core memories, that long unused areas >tended to go bad. > If you don't use magnetizable material for some period of time, it loses its ability to be magnetized ?? Or, if you don't use a core driver (semiconductor or vacuum tube) for some time, the driver will go bad (faster than a used driver) ?? I don't believe it. I would believe that a relay based memory (boy, are we talking ancient) would go bad after long disuse because of contact oxidation. You don't believe computers once used relays ? In the lobby of Aiken, one whole wall is taken up by PART of a relay-based computer. Another wall has display cases that contain what was the latest computer technology from IBM - various models of multi-pole double throw relays. (Actually, I haven't ever seen the inside of the new RTs ... :-)).
aad+@andrew.cmu.edu (Anthony A. Datri) (06/03/87)
I've seen the inside of rt's. CMU has the great misfortune of having shitloads of them. Don't get me wrong -- we didn't buy them. The people who decided these things aren't *that* brain damaged. They belong to IBM. The RT is comprised of approximately 3.4 million micro-relays. How IBM managed to make a relay 20 microns across is beyond me... anthony a datri carnegie mellon university (a subsidary of ibm)