Last Operating ICT 1301 Mainframe Computer Set To Run Again 56
Zothecula writes "What weighs 5.5 tons and has less computing power than your watch? A pioneering piece of computing history call 'Flossie,' the last operating ICT 1301 mainframe. The National Museum of Computing recently took delivery of the dismantled computer, which needed three moving vans to bring it to the museum's storage facility in Milton Keynes, UK. Rod Brown, custodian of Flossie for the past decade, said: 'Flossie has had an extraordinary life -- or more precisely four lives. After it was decommissioned at the University of London in about 1972, it was purchased at scrap metal prices by a group of students who ran an accounting bureau for about five years. They then advertised it in Amateur Computer Club Magazine and it was bought — again at scrap metal value. After languishing for a period in a barn in Kent, it was restored with the help of the Computer Conservation Society. Visitors could then come and see, smell, and feel the vibrations of a remarkable 1960's computer. Last year, Flossie was again at risk of being scrapped, but thanks to The National Museum of Computing the machine is safe again. The team and I are delighted with this news — especially because TNMOC has such an outstanding track record of restoring computers and maintaining them in full working order. We look forward to the day that it can go back on display.'"
So, does it run Linux? (Score:1)
n/t
Re:So, does it run Linux? (Score:4, Informative)
Re: (Score:3)
Linux has been run on 64k micros. Getting it down to 12k would be fiddley, yes. Extensive parts would need to be rewritten. But... it might just be doable.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3)
You don't do something like that to be useful. You do it to see if you can.
Re: (Score:3)
OK, let's find 5 lines from the Linux kernel and recompile them for this architecture.
Linux is not the pragmatic but lean&mean beast it once was. It suffers the same problem as every big project: a cadre of developers so intimately familiar with the system that adding bits here and there fits neatly into their already excellent understanding, while to newcomers it just raises the barrier to entry.
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Strange as it might seem, the correct answer to every computing related question isn't always Linux.
You can always use the Forth, Luke! (Especially on very small systems.)
Re: (Score:2)
http://www.bit-tech.net/news/hardware/2012/03/30/linux-atmel-microcontrollers/1 [bit-tech.net]
well, yeah. it hasn't. since the port needs external memory module..
Re:So, does it run Linux? (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
"Flossie will remain in storage against a time in the near future when, space permitting, the mainframe computer will be reassembled and set to running again."
it doesn't run at all currently.
Re: (Score:2)
It doesn't even run binary arithmatic. The whole thing works in decimal units (using a 4 bit ALU) and does pounds/shilling/pence in hardware. Hence why it was originally retired in 1972 (when the UK currency went decimal) I guess.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:1)
Lawn? I used an ICL 1903T. The 2904 was the wrong colour.
Re: (Score:2)
No, It won't run George (1, 2, 3 or 4) as it isn't an 1900.
(A Rasbery PI can run George 3 though).
And Maximop is a CLI based system, not GUI.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Of course it runs netBSD.
Less computing power than my watch? (Score:4, Insightful)
I doubt it. My watch has only a crystal oscillator with a fixed frequency divider in it.
Re: (Score:2)
I'm wearing a 1956 manual wind Longines. I'm pretty sure it cannot "compute" anything.
Re:Less computing power than my watch? (Score:4, Insightful)
It can surely increment a counter...
Re: (Score:2)
How do you set the time?
I turn a wheel on the side. That slowed down clock pulse ends up in a solenoid which drives the hands through a mechanical gear train like in a spring driven watch.I suspect that there's a friction coupling involved somewhere.
Re: (Score:1)
Mine is fully mechanical...but it's Russian so it only works right in cold weather. I live in Texas.
Re: (Score:1)
Get a room (Score:5, Funny)
come and see, smell, and feel the vibrations
Sure, when it's a computer it's okay, but try that with the exercise bikes in the women's gym and suddenly you're branded a pervert.
Re: (Score:2)
"Perversion", like "envy", describes something which may in fact be positive, neutral or negative, but which thanks to hypocritical puritanism nearly always comes with negative connotations. Their original words were respectively tied up in, "Don't stray from the Official (Church) message, heathen!" (do not be perverse) and, "Don't complain about your lot - God will reward your suffering after death!" (do not be envious)
We have the same two messages even in more secular society, respectively as: do not ques
Re: (Score:2)
That's because the first word there is premature... Put it after the last one, and we're in business.
Re: (Score:2)
try that with the exercise bikes in the women's gym and suddenly you're branded a pervert.
And you wonder why? Watching 5.5 tons work an exercise bike? That just screams "pervert". (Or "bizarre fetishist" at the least.)
proper answer (Score:5, Insightful)
What weighs 5.5 tons and has less computing power than your watch?
your mom.
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Give this man his prize. You know he earned it.
Milton Keynes, eh? (Score:2)
(clears throat) (Score:2, Informative)