Re: [opensuse] swap not available

On Fri, 2007-12-07 at 12:59 -0500, James Knott wrote:
Aaron Kulkis wrote:
James Knott wrote:
Back in the days when I supported mini-computers, everything was TTL
logic, with ECL used in some critical areas. The CPU was two 15 inch
square boards! A 200 MB disk pack drive was the size of a washing

I wrote a driver for a washing machine-sized disk, but it was only 8 MB.
The older machines we used had 6' tall drums for backing store.

machine and required 3 phase power. Some of the systems I worked on
were water cooled. Back in those days, I worked down to the microcode
level, that is the instruction set within the CPU, that enabled it to
run the instruction set the applications would use.

And some CPUs from IBM even had the capability of CHANGING
instruction sets between processes. Like an IBM 370 could
simulate several single-user IBM 360's and single-user IBM
704's by just switching microcode with each context switch.

Yes the driver was for a machine called VCS - variable microcode system.
It had COBOL microcode, FORTRAN microcode etc. It was a development of
Iliffe's basic language machine. It had a variable pot to set the clock
speed. Early in the morning it was cranky and had to be booted at low
speed and then you wound the clock up as it warmed up.

Cheers, Dave
--
To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxx
For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@xxxxxxxxxxxx

Relevant Pages

  • Re: [opensuse] swap not available
    ... Drives will suffer not only from ESD and heath but also from wear, ... cpu are using still lower voltages these days. ... run the instruction set the applications would use. ... simulate several single-user IBM 360's and single-user IBM ...
    (SuSE)
  • Re: Designing CPU
    ... We need to design our own CPU which can be very slow. ... We don't care about ... all possible to microcode from CPU unit? ... instruction set and you can find a number of free implementations on the web ...
    (comp.arch.fpga)
  • Re: [opensuse] swap not available
    ... Drives will suffer not only from ESD and heath but also from wear, ... cpu are using still lower voltages these days. ... run the instruction set the applications would use. ... simulate several single-user IBM 360's and single-user IBM ...
    (SuSE)
  • Re: Designing CPU
    ... We need to design our own CPU which can be very slow. ... all possible to microcode from CPU unit? ... instruction set and you can find a number of free implementations on the web ...
    (comp.arch.fpga)
  • Re: Ouch: Chinas IT Scandals
    ... While machine code is copyrightable. ... machine codes of an instruction set will not be meaningful since ... It details the CPU ... fact, machine language if operated through microcode, is effective in ...
    (soc.culture.china)