Posted on 10/18/2019 7:25:22 AM PDT by ShadowAce
I understand, but the fact they were still using this medium in a system is kind of intimidating. Ever have a floopy “freeze up” in the container just because it sat too long without being spun now and then? They would do the same thing that the old audio cassettes and VHS tapes would do when they sit too long, they rendered themselves almost “solid state”. lol
I heard the Military Pay System software is so old that no one understands a line of it ,LOL
Next thing you know, they will phase out the use of an abacus to do calcs. Governments are so...... efficient, you know.
When I was an IT contractor for the State back in the late 90’s, they were still using 8 inch floppy’s for some serious data processing. Go figure.
It was invented to load the initial microcode for the IBM-370, so you could then begin to load the Operating system DOS/VSE or MVS
I remember those from my 1987 IBM PS2/50...
This is the exact opposite of high tech.
Mistake
Sure is... lol
I read one time that the computer system capabilities on the space shuttles stayed at the same level as an early intel 286. It was explained that this was to make it slow and reliable on purpose. But I’m not sure about this thing here still using floppies.
The nuclear launch now uses Google Android,
so you all better duck and cover.
Android cannot move a file without mangling it’s file date. lol
I still have some in the 5 1/2” range in a box in the basement from when I learned to program during a morning class in HS during the early 80s. Apple basic was the language.
It was a good class to take, but not really my thing.
Had a number of guys running around with punch cards in college - luckily I never had to deal with those - except to fill out my class schedule. Plenty of the 3 1/4 discs in the basement as well.
Doubt any of it is any good anymore - not sure why I’ve held onto them. Wonder if they would be considered “collectible”....
I had heard a story that they could fly the shuttle as an emergency backup with 2 or 3 HP programmable calculators.
I’m guessing that was for navigation and not really to “fly”....but who knows....
And anticipate moving to 3.5" discs in 2040.
I hated that thing...
OMG. You are the only one I’ve encountered who knows that besides myself. They could use the 370 to run 1400 code without emulation. Then they could revert it to the 370 ISA. How cool was that?
I can’t remember buying floppies.
I don’t use the 3.5 disks now and my Windows laptop keeps my desk from floating away.
CDs are the future!
My fav was the Boroughs B1700 which had a different set of Microcode depending on what language you were running. (Cobol/Fortran etc)
This is back in the day when computers actually were fast & worked and you could navigate to the moon in 8K of RAM.
Another mystery is WHERE would you be buying these in 2017?
The Defense Department probably had to put out a bid to have them specially manufactured. 500 units at a cost of $32,918 each.
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