3 ms·

Burroughs B6500 Status Report (1968) [video]

38 points by da02 12y ago

Taniwha 12y ago
wow - of course this was pre-video tape - it really was a film shown to potential customers The free-form pseudo electronic jazz in the background makes it particularly hard to listen to
- joshrotenberg 12y ago
  The free-form pseudo electronic jazz in the background makes it particularly hard to listen to I don't know, daddy-o. Those cats were really flyin'. I dug it.
morganw 12y ago
Holy crap- automated wire-wrapping. I used a wire-wrapped Lisp Machine in 1984 like this one: https://plus.google.com/+DrewFustini/posts/Vfe6TsXVpZW https://plus.google.com/+DrewFustini/posts/Vfe6TsXVpZW Zaphod and Arthur were made available to us. Arthur crashed more.
- Taniwha 12y ago
  It's not that long ago I did my prototyping in wire-wrap - I still have proto boards in wirewrap sitting on my old-stuff shelf. These days we just get boards done in China and delivered in days. I think that it was largely the shift to surface mount parts that killed wirewrap as a prototyping medium
dmethvin 12y ago
The voiceover is William Schallert, who played Patty Duke's father on The Patty Duke Show[1]. [1] http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0769974/ http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0769974/
nigwil_ 12y ago
A while ago I transcribed the voice-over of this clip as part of our efforts to document and resurrect several early Burroughs systems: http://www.retrocomputingtasmania.com/home/projects/burroughs-b5500/b6500-film-transcript http://www.retrocomputingtasmania.com/home/projects/burrough...
makmanalp 12y ago
Burroughs is absolutely fascinating. In the video they mention: 2:50 Simulation, which I assume actually means a combination of integration and unit testing. 3:52 compiler language! i.e. non-machine language 6:05 Some kind of integrated documentation process, I guess akin to rejecting commits that don't have docstrings / sphinx docs included 6:37 "production unit" I wonder if that's where the terminology of "production server" comes from 7:40 list of features including dual processors (SMP), virtual memory! 9:00 simultaneous software & hardware design process + automated wire routing magic ... This company lasted from 1886 building adding machines to 1986 when it got merged with another company to form Unisys, which I guess didn't do so well after that. That's a 100-year-old computer company! Some company records were stored in UMN, would be interesting to dig into that sometime: http://discover.lib.umn.edu/cgi/f/findaid/findaid-idx?c=umfa;cc=umfa;rgn=main;view=text;didno=cbi00090a http://discover.lib.umn.edu/cgi/f/findaid/findaid-idx?c=umfa... Also important to know that Dijkstra was a Burroughs research fellow. Must have been an amazing place to work at. More interesting stuff: http://conservancy.umn.edu/bitstream/107105/1/oh098b5c.pdf http://conservancy.umn.edu/bitstream/107105/1/oh098b5c.pdf http://www.academia.edu/1522947/Too_far_ahead_of_its_time_Barclays_Burroughs_and_real-time_banking http://www.academia.edu/1522947/Too_far_ahead_of_its_time_Ba... http://ed-thelen.org/comp-hist/B5000-AlgolRWaychoff.html http://ed-thelen.org/comp-hist/B5000-AlgolRWaychoff.html
- acqq 12y ago
  Also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burroughs_large_systems http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burroughs_large_systems Knuth: Writing a compiler for the Burroughs Corporation http://www.webofstories.com/play/donald.knuth/27 http://www.webofstories.com/play/donald.knuth/27

38 points by da02 12y ago

wow - of course this was pre-video tape - it really was a film shown to potential customers The free-form pseudo electronic jazz in the background makes it particularly hard to listen to

joshrotenberg 12y ago
The free-form pseudo electronic jazz in the background makes it particularly hard to listen to I don't know, daddy-o. Those cats were really flyin'. I dug it.

morganw 12y ago

Holy crap- automated wire-wrapping. I used a wire-wrapped Lisp Machine in 1984 like this one: https://plus.google.com/+DrewFustini/posts/Vfe6TsXVpZW https://plus.google.com/+DrewFustini/posts/Vfe6TsXVpZW Zaphod and Arthur were made available to us. Arthur crashed more.

Taniwha 12y ago
It's not that long ago I did my prototyping in wire-wrap - I still have proto boards in wirewrap sitting on my old-stuff shelf. These days we just get boards done in China and delivered in days. I think that it was largely the shift to surface mount parts that killed wirewrap as a prototyping medium

dmethvin 12y ago

The voiceover is William Schallert, who played Patty Duke's father on The Patty Duke Show[1]. [1] http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0769974/ http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0769974/

nigwil_ 12y ago

A while ago I transcribed the voice-over of this clip as part of our efforts to document and resurrect several early Burroughs systems: http://www.retrocomputingtasmania.com/home/projects/burroughs-b5500/b6500-film-transcript http://www.retrocomputingtasmania.com/home/projects/burrough...

makmanalp 12y ago

Burroughs is absolutely fascinating. In the video they mention: 2:50 Simulation, which I assume actually means a combination of integration and unit testing. 3:52 compiler language! i.e. non-machine language 6:05 Some kind of integrated documentation process, I guess akin to rejecting commits that don't have docstrings / sphinx docs included 6:37 "production unit" I wonder if that's where the terminology of "production server" comes from 7:40 list of features including dual processors (SMP), virtual memory! 9:00 simultaneous software & hardware design process + automated wire routing magic ... This company lasted from 1886 building adding machines to 1986 when it got merged with another company to form Unisys, which I guess didn't do so well after that. That's a 100-year-old computer company! Some company records were stored in UMN, would be interesting to dig into that sometime: http://discover.lib.umn.edu/cgi/f/findaid/findaid-idx?c=umfa;cc=umfa;rgn=main;view=text;didno=cbi00090a http://discover.lib.umn.edu/cgi/f/findaid/findaid-idx?c=umfa... Also important to know that Dijkstra was a Burroughs research fellow. Must have been an amazing place to work at. More interesting stuff: http://conservancy.umn.edu/bitstream/107105/1/oh098b5c.pdf http://conservancy.umn.edu/bitstream/107105/1/oh098b5c.pdf http://www.academia.edu/1522947/Too_far_ahead_of_its_time_Barclays_Burroughs_and_real-time_banking http://www.academia.edu/1522947/Too_far_ahead_of_its_time_Ba... http://ed-thelen.org/comp-hist/B5000-AlgolRWaychoff.html http://ed-thelen.org/comp-hist/B5000-AlgolRWaychoff.html

acqq 12y ago
Also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burroughs_large_systems http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burroughs_large_systems Knuth: Writing a compiler for the Burroughs Corporation http://www.webofstories.com/play/donald.knuth/27 http://www.webofstories.com/play/donald.knuth/27