Though I'm in a remote part of Iraq now, I've been around computers since 1968. It doesn't seem that long ago to me. At that time, I was right out of tech school and then hired by Honeywell, Inc. to work as an engineering assistant. I was employed primarily at their Brighton, MA plant. Honeywell was constructing large mainframe computers in Framingham and Newton and some other sites too. The new systems such as the 4200 and 8200 series, which were destined to be the next big thing, were being built for the business market. Home computers were not even thought about at that time. The average person could never afford the high price tag in those days anyway.
The computers then were actually 3rd generation computers that filled a large room along with all its peripheral equipment. Peripherals consisted of all the accessories needed such as the many floor tape decks, card readers, myler and paper tape punchers etc. As technicians, we were using some older 2nd generation computers to help with debugging and testing of the memory drawers on the new larger systems. We also used large oscilloscopes and multi-meters in testing our systems being constructed at the manufacturing plant. The high tech printers, at that time, used Kleinsmith printers. These were one line at a time, typewriter style printers. They were very slow, as you can imagine.
Programs run on these older computing systems took time to process the information that we had inputted. Some input was via card reader, other input by binary coding entered on a control panel. Some times, the computing time took hours to run and then the output was no good and we'd have to start all over. Testing with an oscilloscope was to observe frequency waves and determine if they were correct for the device and the amount of energy produced or applied. Voltages and resistance measurements were determined by use of multimeters and other instruments. Still other testing was by operating under excess heat and cooling temperatures. These were called environmental Chambers and it could get pretty cold in there. The computers needed to function the same way under different conditions.
The computer programmers in those days had to put all the data on those cards and it was time consuming. Programs could take weeks to produce using this process. Every company had to have several programmers, key punch operators, decollators' operators and a host of other staff to complete basic operations. It required a whole computer dept. After two years at Honeywell, I was drafted into the army during the Vietnam era. My overseas duty was spent in Okinawa so I was one of the lucky ones. Upon my return to Honeywell, I went back to working on computers. Two more years there and then I worked nine years in downtown Boston for an insurance company. I had worked as a computer operator on IBM systems and was later promoted to operations manager upon my graduation from college. Later I was an operations manager in CT on IBM and HP mainframes. We used several workstations at locations that could communicate with the computer there via phone lines.
It wasn't until the early eighties that personal computers started to appear on the market. First, they appeared in businesses and then to a number of homes. My first home computer was a Gateway 486 with a very slow processor - 33mhz. To get online, I used dial up service using a slow modem and signed up with AOL or CompuServe for service. Email was big as was computer game playing in the early days. The graphics on line were almost non- existent with most every site at that time only text base. Computers broke down regularly and it was important to understand DOS. Other computer systems around then were the IBM PC, the Packard Bell and a few old Commodores. Do you remember the Wang computer? We truly have evolved now with our fast computers thanks to DSL and cable services and good graphics.
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