UNIX Arcana [was Re: Perl (or Unix vs. MS, actually) ]

[Jerry Feldman]

Actually, WRT: Burger King, the PDP-8 was located under the counter. The 
AMF service guys were equipped with a briefcase mounted paper tape reader, 
and a few other things including the board. The POS maintained inventory, 
hourly sales by product, cash control, as well as the normal POS functions. 
The data was transmitted to Miami every night. There was only a single 
day's storage available. 100% of the software was written in PDP-8 
assembler (Sabre I believe). Program changes were uploaded as necessary. 
All this in 4K memory. 
On 22 Aug 2002 at 9:18, Hewitt Tech wrote:

> Or alternatively the service person could load the appropriate diagnostic
> into a machine and then carry the core memory module to the system that
> needed to be diagnosed. This could be very useful when the system you needed
> to repair was difficult to get at (sitting in a cramped closet, etc.). The
> memory module was easier to get at then trying to plug in a peripheral and
> it's controller. Once you had the core memory plugged into the system you
> would load the starting address of the diagnostic and then hit the "run"
> switch.
> 
> -Alex
> 
> P.S. Geez, I guess I am getting to be "older than dirt"! ;^)
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Jerry Feldman" <gaf at blu.org>
> To: "Greater NH Linux User Group" <discuss at gnhlug.org>
> Sent: Thursday, August 22, 2002 8:56 AM
> Subject: Re: UNIX Arcana [was Re: Perl (or Unix vs. MS, actually) ]
> 
> 
> > Discussed that last night at the BLU meeting.
> > Many of the PDP-8s did not come with a ROM. To load the executive, you
> > would key in the RIM(ReadInMode) loader on the front panel switches. The
> > RIM loader was a very simple paper tape reader program whose purpose was
> to
> > read in the real paper tape loader. From there you could reload the PDP-8.
> >
> > Burger King's point of Sale system in the early 1970s was a PDP-8M with 4
> > attached registers. No disk, no paper tape, core memory. For the modem, we
> > had to time the 1200 baud with timing loops and send a bit at a time. No
> > UART. We also had to strike the hammers on the printer drum. Keyboard
> > required to reads (row and column). If the system crashed, a service guy
> > had to come in, plug in the paper tape board, and reload the program.
> > On 22 Aug 2002 at 8:36, bscott at ntisys.com wrote:
> > >   Okay, I have to ask: What's a "RIM loader"?
> >
> > --
> > Jerry Feldman <gaf at blu.org>
> > Associate Director
> > Boston Linux and Unix user group
> > http://www.blu.org PGP key id:C5061EA9
> > PGP Key fingerprint:053C 73EC 3AC1 5C44 3E14 9245 FB00 3ED5 C506 1EA9
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > gnhlug-discuss mailing list
> > gnhlug-discuss at mail.gnhlug.org
> > http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
> >
> 


-- 
Jerry Feldman <gaf at blu.org>
Associate Director
Boston Linux and Unix user group
http://www.blu.org PGP key id:C5061EA9
PGP Key fingerprint:053C 73EC 3AC1 5C44 3E14 9245 FB00 3ED5 C506 1EA9