4 ms·
Booting the IBM 1401: How a 1959 punch-card computer loads a program
- londons_explore 6y agoThis system seems crazy inefficient - you could halve the number of cards immediately if the machine had a 'load code' mode which just repeatedly executed 'load card to memory address, setting word marks from the final column' instructions. I guess the developers expected most cards to be data cards, and no programs to be too big or complex so storage efficiency wasn't important.