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bigmik

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Joined: 20/06/2011
Location: Australia
Posts: 2949

Posted: 02:21am 01 Dec 2024

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Hi All,

Karl Von Moller, the owner of the YouTube channel "State of electronics" has released the first of what is planned to be an extensive look at the History of computers in Australia.

Part 1 can be found >>> HERE <<<

Kind Regards,

Mick (The big one)

.

Mick's uMite Stuff can be found >>> HERE (Kindly hosted by Dontronics) <<<

TassyJim

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Joined: 07/08/2011
Location: Australia
Posts: 6269

Posted: 03:06am 01 Dec 2024

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If you prefer to read:
https://csiropedia.csiro.au/csiro-computing-history-chapter-1/
Jim

VK7JH
MMedit

bigmik

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Joined: 20/06/2011
Location: Australia
Posts: 2949

Posted: 10:39pm 29 Dec 2024

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Hi All,

Part II of “The history of Computers in Australia” is now on line.

>>> Part II <<<

Enjoy.

Kind Regards,

Mick (the big one)

.

Mick's uMite Stuff can be found >>> HERE (Kindly hosted by Dontronics) <<<

bigmik

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Joined: 20/06/2011
Location: Australia
Posts: 2949

Posted: 12:41am 31 Jan 2025

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Hi All,

Part III of “The history of computers in Australia” is now online.

>>> Part III <<<

Enjoy,

Regards,

Mick (The big one)

.
Edited 2025-01-31 10:41 by bigmik

Mick's uMite Stuff can be found >>> HERE (Kindly hosted by Dontronics) <<<

bigmik

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Joined: 20/06/2011
Location: Australia
Posts: 2949

Posted: 05:30am 01 Mar 2025

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Hi All,

Part IV of “The history of computers in Australia” is now online.

>>> Part IV <<<

Enjoy,

Regards,

Mick (The big one)

.

Mick's uMite Stuff can be found >>> HERE (Kindly hosted by Dontronics) <<<

bigmik

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Joined: 20/06/2011
Location: Australia
Posts: 2949

Posted: 11:46pm 29 Mar 2025

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Hi All,

Part V of “The history of computers in Australia” is now online.

>>> Part V <<<

Enjoy,

Regards,

Mick (The big one)

.

Mick's uMite Stuff can be found >>> HERE (Kindly hosted by Dontronics) <<<

zeitfest
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Joined: 31/07/2019
Location: Australia
Posts: 574

Posted: 02:17am 30 Mar 2025

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Thanks Mick !!

Fascinating to watch, and realize where the names fit in. I think the first computer I saw was in the early sixties, the size of a fridge, and I was lucky enough to play a naught-and-crosses game demo. I blame it all on that

.

School had a inspired activity which gave students some cards which could be punched with a bent paper clip, and for a few sessions we would "write" a very small program into the cards which would be sent off and the output returned in a week. I was hooked !! At uni it was too early to do Computer Science as it did not exist as a separate subject, but there were options in science courses to have a go, and a Burroughs 6700 (ed) I think.. and then newfangled DEC VAXs and (gasp) Visual Display Units on-line.

The Computer Science course started at a third year level, the next year it had a second year start, and so on then at first year and became a degree in its own right. So each year the course was obsolete the next year, not problem though - the students tended to exit to very well paid jobs before finishing the course anyway !

I wonder if SILLIAC can be emulated on a pic or pico ? (Without the paper tape and punched cards - I remember using the card punch machines as well, too much

)
Edited 2025-03-30 12:57 by zeitfest

phil99

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Joined: 11/02/2018
Location: Australia
Posts: 2610

Posted: 04:23am 30 Mar 2025

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Quote School had a inspired activity which gave students some cards...and the output returned in a week.

Had a similar thing at high school. A maths teacher gave lunchtime classes in MiniTRAN, a bare bones version of FORTRAN, similar to early Basic. For 10 cents you got up to 10 seconds for your card stack to be processed and printed. Printing took about 9 seconds for 3 fan-fold pages, limiting what you could do. Until I found it would finish the last Print statement. By loading all the output into a suitably formatted 2D array and printing it on the last line 7 pages could be had, provided the card-reader didn't mash the stack first.

Quote I think the first computer I saw was in the early sixties, the size of a fridge

At RMIT had access to a DEC PDP8e via teletype. Also the size of a fridge but with dismal performance.

bigmik

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Joined: 20/06/2011
Location: Australia
Posts: 2949

Posted: 12:33am 30 Apr 2025

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Hi All,

Part VI of “The history of computers in Australia” is now online.

Part VI

Enjoy,

Regards,

Mick (The big one)

.
Edited 2025-06-11 16:26 by bigmik

Mick's uMite Stuff can be found >>> HERE (Kindly hosted by Dontronics) <<<

bigmik

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Joined: 20/06/2011
Location: Australia
Posts: 2949

Posted: 06:27am 11 Jun 2025

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Hi All,

Part VII of “The history of computers in Australia” is now online.

Part VII

Enjoy,

Regards,

Mick (The big one)

.

Mick's uMite Stuff can be found >>> HERE (Kindly hosted by Dontronics) <<<

bigmik

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Joined: 20/06/2011
Location: Australia
Posts: 2949

Posted: 04:37am 02 Jul 2025

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Hi All,

Part VIII of “The history of computers in Australia” is now online.

>>> Part VIII <<<

Enjoy,

Regards,

Mick (The big one)

.
Edited 2025-07-02 14:37 by bigmik

Mick's uMite Stuff can be found >>> HERE (Kindly hosted by Dontronics) <<<

Volhout
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Joined: 05/03/2018
Location: Netherlands
Posts: 5058

Posted: 10:06am 02 Jul 2025

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Hi Mick,

Kind of hilarious, that after 7 years of reliable operation of the transistorized SNOCOM computer, in 1967 they bought a new computer... Elliot 405 .. with valves ...

Volhout
Edited 2025-07-02 20:07 by Volhout

PicomiteVGA PETSCII ROBOTS

bigmik

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Posts: 2949

Posted: 10:45am 02 Jul 2025

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Volhoult,

I did notice that when I watched it myself.

The previous computers that were valve drive were constant changing of valves..

The transistors were in modules that looked like they had DB25 connectors and changed a block of them.

I think I remember them saying it was mainly the germanium diodes that failed.

Regards,

Mick

.

Mick's uMite Stuff can be found >>> HERE (Kindly hosted by Dontronics) <<<

Volhout
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Joined: 05/03/2018
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Posts: 5058

Posted: 11:08am 02 Jul 2025

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Hi Mick,

Indeed these germanium diodes where quite flaky, but so must the germanium PNP transistors have been in the early days.

If you have plenty of time to spare, watch the YT video's from USAGI ELECTRIC. This guy is reviving old computers, and knows all about failing germanium diodes (Bendix G15 repair).
He also built his own valve based computer from scratch...

Volhout
Edited 2025-07-02 21:10 by Volhout

PicomiteVGA PETSCII ROBOTS

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