Comments on: Name that thing

By: Devin Burck

Devin Burck — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 17:49:21 +0000

{I'm|I am going to try this out for sure. Thanks|Thank you for the Information.

By: niccohel

niccohel — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 06:35:30 +0000

is that some sort of cyber-punk accordian?

By: Paul

Paul — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 03:15:38 +0000

LOL I actually played with a working one of these once… About 1988 and it was located in an old cupboard in a maths room, during year 12 studies. University the following year,

By: Gumbi

Gumbi — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 23:24:24 +0000

is it just me or are they using this hack-a-day new post word for word…

http://diynow.nl/name-that-thing

By: Ben

Ben — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 23:08:53 +0000

@cgmark, That’s not how magnetic core memory works. You might be thinking of rope core memory.

By: cgmark

cgmark — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 19:41:28 +0000

magnetic core memory is cool. It just takes up too much space. It was used to store data for the moon missions computers. They wired in the bits because things like eprom were not available. If the wire passed through a core it was a 1 , no core a 0 and the entire program the computers ran were encoded that way.

Now imagine when you find a program error and have to rewire several thousand wires :)

By: Piero

Piero — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 16:07:15 +0000

It is an old machine to scan rats. The rat would be placed on the metal pad. The cables underneath it would send electronic impulses through the rat’s body to scan it. This would make it possible to find out what diseases it might carry and if it ate your cheese. When all the little light bulbs had gone off, the process would be completed. The photo-scan would then remain impressed on the red slides at the back, which was handy for they could be ket in a folder for future reference on the rat’s health. Unfortunately, as a side effect the machine would fry the rat, as the picture shows. So it quickly fell into disuse.

By: silvershovler

silvershovler — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 14:54:42 +0000

well since we know know what it happens to be. i still want to guess. is it the remote control for sputnik? Farnsworth doomsday device type 3? Polish cell phone circa 1955? Canadian easy bake oven? Iranian magnatron circa 2007? or my personal favorite, prototype for one laptop per child winner?

By: Mic

Mic — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 14:35:23 +0000

Yea the magnetic core memory is bad ass. stroboscopic display is also bad ass. The immense efforts it must have took to make theses machines back then. The AL-1000 must have cost a lot back then. “The portable 27lb calculator”

By: sgf

sgf — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 13:21:07 +0000

S100 is waaaaaaaay later. That’s microprocessor stuff. This thing is full of discrete components.

By: M4CGYV3R

M4CGYV3R — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 10:42:14 +0000

The close-ups of the magnetic core memory cells on the vintagecalculators page is really cool.

By: inginear

inginear — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 09:25:15 +0000

i should have looked here before i entered the contest. since it has 14 nixie tubes i thought it was one of the old airport arrival/departure signs. although airport signs were alphanumeric. oh well, i’ll just have to enter the next contest that offers credit at adafruit.

By: Sergei Frolov

Sergei Frolov — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 07:20:51 +0000

Nixie display is very cool. But what about stroboscopic display?

By: jproach

jproach — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 07:02:32 +0000

Does anyone know the answer to 104 posted by Alan above?

By: Roly

Roly — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 05:16:04 +0000

14 Nixies! And I’ll bet they still work, too. Magnetic core is nice to work with too.

I had the innards out of a calculating scale that looked quite similar, but I doubt it would be S-100 as most of these manufacturers used in-house arrangements.

HP once made a similar desktop mini-computer like this that would still rip the trunk off a large elephant, weight and capability.