[ale] bazillion year old software

[Ron Frazier]

Way back in 1988, I went to work for Delta Air Lines as a Flight
Simulator Technician.  At the time, they still had a DC8 simulator.  The
cockpit room was small and sat close to the ground.  It rode on two
hydraulic cylinders about 4 feet tall and a couple of even smaller ones,
as opposed to the 14 foot monsters of today.  The computer and linkage
occupied about 16 cabinets 7 feet tall by 3 feet square, which sat on a
raised floor with continuous cooling.

The system was programmed by ... punched cards, no kidding.  As I
recall, there were about 8 trays of about 2000 cards.  Lord help you if
you drop a tray, although they had human readable text at the top, so
you could sort them out if you really had to.  Doing a little math at 80
characters / card, that works out to a total program of about 128 K
Bytes.  It did the job quite well though.

By the way, the DC8 simulator was really fun to fly.  We had to test
them nightly and troubleshoot problems.  Even though it was a big plane,
it had 4 very powerful engines.  It would accelerate more rapidly than
some of the newer jets and was pretty maneuverable for a plane that
size.

They decommissioned that system not long afterward, and I was somewhat
sad to see it go.  I was not sad to see the punched cards go however,
nor the hydraulic system, which was a bear to work on.

Some of the more modern simulators at the time had one to three 300 MB
disk DRIVES with associated removable 300 MB disk PACKS.  The Pack was
about the size of a really small microwave oven, and contained about 8
platters of about 14 inches in diameter with a central hub area of about
6 inches.  The drive was about the size of a mini refrigerator.  It made
a kind of whirring roaring noise when running, and cost about as much as
a 1 bedroom house.

How times have changed.  I just installed a 500,000 MB drive in my
laptop for $ 150.

I tried to find pictures but couldn't find many.  Here are a couple.

http://www.helianthusproductions.com/harper.html - 2nd Photo.  Interior
of a DC8 simulator.  Not related to Delta.

http://img.youtube.com/vi/lH6Rn08URQw/0.jpg - Flight simulator on an
IPAD!  Not a DC8.

http://www.computermuseum.li/Testpage/Disks-Compared.htm - Disk DRIVE,
4th picture.

http://www.tpsoft.com/museum_images/CDC%20Hard%20Disk%20Pack%202.JPG -
Disk PACK.

http://www.computermuseum.li/Testpage/DiskPlatter-1301.htm - Nothing to
do with my past, but the picture is great.  IBM 1301 Data Storage disk
with a young boy for size comparison.

Sincerely,

Ron


On Mon, 2011-01-10 at 10:47 -0500, Pete Hardie wrote:
> On Mon, Jan 10, 2011 at 10:34, Paul Cartwright <ale at pcartwright.com> wrote:
> > On 01/10/2011 10:01 AM, Jim Kinney wrote:
> >> 1. AMDEK setup and testing disk and both MS-DOS 3.2 system and GW-BASIC
> >> 3.2 disks.
> >> 2. Another lifeless planet and me with no beer v.1.3
> >> 3. Monuments on Mars
> >> 3. DUKE NUKEM  !!!!!
> >
> > what, no Zork?
> 
> That's on punch card......:)
> 
> 
> 
> >
> >>
> >> The 3 games have never been opened.
> >>
> >> I have no drive to put them in....
> > http://www.floppydisks.com/items.php?itm=8&pgnum=1
> >
> >
> > --
> > Paul Cartwright
> > Registered Linux user # 367800
> > Registered Ubuntu User #12459
> >

-- 

(PS - If you email me and don't get a quick response, you might want to
call on the phone.  I get about 300 emails per day from alternate energy
mailing lists and such.  I don't always see new messages very quickly.)

Ron Frazier

770-205-9422 (O)   Leave a message.
linuxdude AT c3energy.com