Re: Historical evolution of CPU perf

Scott Lurndal <scott@slp53.sl.home> schrieb:

Sarr Blumson <sarr@sdf.org> writes:

MitchAlsup1 <mitchalsup@aol.com> wrote:

On Wed, 9 Oct 2024 19:18:40 +0000, Kerr-Mudd, John wrote:
 
I remember the PDP-11/20 in the computer lab at NCR.
Last person out at night would flick the power switch OFF, and
the computer was OFF in 1/60 of a second.
First person in would flick the switch ON and the computer was
back where it was turned off in 1/60 of a second.
 
We used the 11/20 as a remote debug device for the 8085 cash
register machine(s) we were building.

>
Core memory: slow to access but also slow to forget.

Compared to the alternatives at the time, it was the fastest
gun in the west.

Reading about the predecessors, the memory delay tubes and the
Williams tubes (I once saw these in action on the Manchester Baby;
they were cool, you can see the memory contants directly), _much_
better in reliability.