[geeks] fwd: IBM supercomputer dual-boots Windows and Linux

[Geoffrey S. Mendelson]

On Sun, Jun 22, 2008 at 10:08:29AM -0500, Lionel Peterson wrote:
> Typo/mis-remember: It was a Mac Plus[0]...

The 68000 (Motorola) chip was different compared to the Intel processors. 
The Intel processors had I/O instructions, the Motorola did not.

I/O was accomplished on the 68000 (and the 6502 from the Apple II) by setting
bits in memory. The I/O logic used memory addresses as I/O ports.

This reminds me of a story......

In the early 1950's the Soviet Union was still an ally of the U.S. They
sent a delegation to see the latest computing advances at the Moore School
of Electrical Engineering of the Univeristy of Pennsylvania, where ENIAC
was built.

They spoke to a professor named Saul Goren. He told them that what they were
doing was no longer leading edge, and if they wanted to see the latest
developments in computing, they should go across the river to Camden New Jersey
and see RCA's BIZMAC. BIZMAC was the first machine to have channels. Channels
were seperate I/O processors which could operate while the CPU was doing 
something else, or idle. 

For example, you could copy tapes, print the contents of a tape, or copy a
deck of cards to a tape using their channels leaving the CPU to do something
else. 

When he was told this the head of Soviet delegation went back to his comrades
in a huddle. He came out and asked "What means this BIZMAC"?

Goren answered "Business Machine". 

The soviet went back into the huddle, came out and said:

"In the Soviet Union we have no such thing as your business. Therefore we
will not see your business machine".

They left without ever seeing the BIZMAC and Soviet computers never had
channels, line printers, etc, until they got the technology of the IBM 360
well over 10 years later.

Geoff.
-- 
Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel gsm at mendelson.com  N3OWJ/4X1GM