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The text makes it clear that capacity of the drum was 16384 12 bit "words", 196608 bits in total. The use of core memory was a big advance at that time. Prev
by nik61 9y ago
The text makes it clear that capacity of the drum was 16384 12 bit "words", 196608 bits in total. The use of core memory was a big advance at that time. Previously the drums had been the main memory for that generation of machines, with optimal placement of code on the drum being seen as a major programming skill.
- dungle6 9y agoThe words are 36 bits. 3 12 bit characters (the analogue to a byte)
- andars 9y ago12 "character" words of 36 bits.
- JorgeGT 9y ago> with optimal placement of code on the drum being seen as a major programming skill. I remember reading an article/blog post from a programer of that time detailing how he optimized some code by taking into account the physics of the drum (such as mechanical inertia, angular momentum, etc.). I don't know how to locate it now but it was amazingly low-level.
- Stratoscope 9y agoYou may be thinking of the Story of Mel: http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/story-of-mel.html http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/story-of-mel.html https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Story_of_Mel https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Story_of_Mel