On (ancient) Music

[crfriend]

Oh Boy Here we go again

You, sir, are a wise-arse.

MIPS = Million Instructions Per Second (also a corporate entity dba as MIPS, Inc. My comment means the latter. Also "Microprocessor without Interlocked Pipeline Stages". Foo.)
SGI = Silicon Graphics Incorporated
CPU = Central Processing Unit
SPARC = Scalable PRocessor ARChitecture
VAX = Virtual Address eXtension
PA-RISC = Precision Architecture - Reduced Instruction Set Computer

and

CLIPPER is a trade-name!

Does anyone serve saltine crackers with their Alphabet Soup
[ ]

Enjoy the soup. It's tasty once you acquire it.

Note that many of the above are not pure acronyms. (I especially detest "VAX".)

For the "uninitiated", Al is trying very hard to help me out in an upcoming presentation happening within the next week where I'll be "on air" (if one can call an Internet video-feed such) talking about the RCS/RI's (Retro-Computing Society of Rhode Island) PDP-12 (Programmed Data Processor -- because we can't call it a computer) and its place in history. Yes, the talk will, of necessity, be acronym and jargon laden -- and some of the "acronyms" are also inside jokes (We're talking here of a time in history when that was not just acceptable but expected.)

I'd like some slack, please!

[Uncle Al]

You, sir, are a wise-arse.

Why, Thank You Kind Sir



Hey - - Gotta have a bit of fun now and then

Uncle Al

[Tor]

We're talking here of a time in history when that was not just acceptable but expected.

Indeed. And as Paul Boutin said of the problems facing computing in the nineties: “There are only 17,000 TLAs." So, things had to evolve to a more expansive address space, and ended up doing so by mostly doing away with acronyms Perhaps less amusing, but at least it does typically reduce the amount of stuff one needs to remember somewhat.

[Big and Bashful]

I didn't know binary spiders came in so many flavours!

[crfriend]

I didn't know binary spiders came in so many flavours!

Are you one of the types who believes that modern computing sprung from the mind of Bill Gates in 1981? If so, then some education may be in order! (Sergeant At Arms! The clue-bat, please.)

Joking aside, computing history is a fascinating subject. It's a rich tapestry of great ideas, blind alleys, things that "looked good at the time", failures, and triumphs. It's got heroes, villains, skullduggery, treachery, and even a hint of arson. And, it's got a cast of computers that makes any movie by Cecil B. DeMille look paltry.

In short, not everything is a PC, and not everything runs on Intel processors. As I survey my domain (all 10 x 15 feet of it) I can count ten different CPU types living in sixteen systems (not all of which are running full-time, mind) (and the number keeps growing as I find more of them hiding under other things!) any of which can be lit off on demand (some with more work than others). This is just the "little machines"

Here's the tally:

4 PC-class systems from vintage 1995 to 2011 (2 Linux, one Windows-7) with one of them running a Transmeta Crusoe chip.
3 VAX systems of two different types (VAXstation 3100 M76 and VAXstation 2000)
1 DEC Alpha system (which runs Windows NT 4 when powered up)
1 DECstation 3100 with a MIPS 2000 CPU
1 Intergraph InterPro 2020 sporting a CLIPPER CPU
1 Sun SPARCstation 2 with a 32-bit SPARC CPU (part of the household infrastructure)
1 IBM RS/6000 POWERstation 220 running IBM's POWER (Performance Optimised with Enhanced RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computing, or "Relegate Interesting Stuff to the Compiler")) CPU
1 Silicon Graphics Indy running a MIPS R4400 CPU
3 Sun Microsystems "Netra t1 105" systems with 64-bit SPARC CPUs (active development system)
1 Hewlett-Packard 735 (with Apollo labeling) with a very early PA-RISC chip in it
1 ROLM (company name) airborne militarized computer rated for -- get this -- missile applications (it runs a slightly modified Data General ECLIPSE instruction set)

... and that doesn't even count the comms gear that stitches it all together.

So, as you can see, even the Intel architecture is in a decided minority in my household. ALL the "big machines" predate 1981 with the earliest in my personal collection going back to 1970. At RCS/RI, we have one from 1961.

[Mugs-n-such]

First, sorry I haven't posted for awhile (though I occasionally check back as a guest). I was going to start a new thread for this, but then I saw this thread and hoped it might fit right in. I just heard this song for the first time the other day (it was a bit before my time) but I liked it right away.
Warning: If you listen to it too much it might go through your head all day and all night...like it does me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9zRM_G2MUk

[Big and Bashful]

I didn't know binary spiders came in so many flavours!

Are you one of the types who believes that modern computing sprung from the mind of Bill Gates in 1981? If so, then some education may be in order! (Sergeant At Arms! The clue-bat, please.)

Joking aside, computing history is a fascinating subject. It's a rich tapestry of great ideas, blind alleys, things that "looked good at the time", failures, and triumphs. It's got heroes, villains, skullduggery, treachery, and even a hint of arson. And, it's got a cast of computers that makes any movie by Cecil B. DeMille look paltry.

In short, not everything is a PC, and not everything runs on Intel processors. As I survey my domain (all 10 x 15 feet of it) I can count ten different CPU types living in sixteen systems (not all of which are running full-time, mind) (and the number keeps growing as I find more of them hiding under other things!) any of which can be lit off on demand (some with more work than others). This is just the "little machines"

Here's the tally:

4 PC-class systems from vintage 1995 to 2011 (2 Linux, one Windows-7) with one of them running a Transmeta Crusoe chip.
3 VAX systems of two different types (VAXstation 3100 M76 and VAXstation 2000)
1 DEC Alpha system (which runs Windows NT 4 when powered up)
1 DECstation 3100 with a MIPS 2000 CPU
1 Intergraph InterPro 2020 sporting a CLIPPER CPU
1 Sun SPARCstation 2 with a 32-bit SPARC CPU (part of the household infrastructure)
1 IBM RS/6000 POWERstation 220 running IBM's POWER (Performance Optimised with Enhanced RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computing, or "Relegate Interesting Stuff to the Compiler")) CPU
1 Silicon Graphics Indy running a MIPS R4400 CPU
3 Sun Microsystems "Netra t1 105" systems with 64-bit SPARC CPUs (active development system)
1 Hewlett-Packard 735 (with Apollo labeling) with a very early PA-RISC chip in it
1 ROLM (company name) airborne militarized computer rated for -- get this -- missile applications (it runs a slightly modified Data General ECLIPSE instruction set)

... and that doesn't even count the comms gear that stitches it all together.

So, as you can see, even the Intel architecture is in a decided minority in my household. ALL the "big machines" predate 1981 with the earliest in my personal collection going back to 1970. At RCS/RI, we have one from 1961.

What no ARM chip? or for that matter an old 6502?

[crfriend]

What no ARM chip? or for that matter an old 6502?

It would not surprise me in the least if there were a few of those scattered about as embedded controllers. I only hit the obviously-visible stuff (and there are other examples that are still surfacing in my study.

[skirted_in_SF]

That's quite a collection Carl. Provided you could get enough power to the room, I bet you could heat your house in winter by firing up half of them.

[beachlion]

Here's the tally:

4 PC-class systems from vintage 1995 to 2011 (2 Linux, one Windows-7) with one of them running a Transmeta Crusoe chip.
3 VAX systems of two different types (VAXstation 3100 M76 and VAXstation 2000)
1 DEC Alpha system (which runs Windows NT 4 when powered up)
1 DECstation 3100 with a MIPS 2000 CPU
1 Intergraph InterPro 2020 sporting a CLIPPER CPU
1 Sun SPARCstation 2 with a 32-bit SPARC CPU (part of the household infrastructure)
1 IBM RS/6000 POWERstation 220 running IBM's POWER (Performance Optimised with Enhanced RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computing, or "Relegate Interesting Stuff to the Compiler")) CPU
1 Silicon Graphics Indy running a MIPS R4400 CPU
3 Sun Microsystems "Netra t1 105" systems with 64-bit SPARC CPUs (active development system)
1 Hewlett-Packard 735 (with Apollo labeling) with a very early PA-RISC chip in it
1 ROLM (company name) airborne militarized computer rated for -- get this -- missile applications (it runs a slightly modified Data General ECLIPSE instruction set)

That is quite impressive.
I'm a mechanical engineer but also interested in electronics. So somewhere in 1975 I build my first computer from scratch with a Rockwell 4-bits CPU and a hardwired memory of 256 bits. In Holland (where I was born) everything is a little later than in the rest of the world. Even the government and the unions tried to stop the computerization for fear of loosing jobs. But you can't fight progress. For a few year I was volunteer at a private computer museum with the largest collection of computers and related equipment in Holland.

[crfriend]

[...]I bet you could heat your house in winter by firing up half of them.

I have a good friend in Providence who did precisely that one time when he ran out of heating oil -- except that he used a VAX-11/750 to do the job.

[crfriend]

To get back on target, mostly, to music, it's not often that I am so taken aback as to be rendered almost speechless but this piece -- Living in Eternity -- by Tangerine dream did just that to me this evening.

I'd managed, somehow, to slew off to the band's website and the above piece started playing after a couple of others. My jaw dropped. I've heard a lot of "electronica" in my time on this miserable little rock, but this one took my breath away.

It's recent, too -- from the past 5 years, which means the creative spark is still alive there, and that is truly good news indeed as I've loved TD's music for decades; I've just been "out of touch" with the current state of the art.

[Jack Williams]

First, sorry I haven't posted for awhile (though I occasionally check back as a guest). I was going to start a new thread for this, but then I saw this thread and hoped it might fit right in. I just heard this song for the first time the other day (it was a bit before my time) but I liked it right away.
Warning: If you listen to it too much it might go through your head all day and all night...like it does me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9zRM_G2MUk

I remember it well!
A few words in and the whole song popped up.

[Jack Williams]

Not so ancient, but I took my camera in to this concert at the Auckland Town Hall last year:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzBN5MUkaSA

[crfriend]

Then there's this piece from 1972 which I heard for the first time today following a dive down into electronic music (most of which was bleeps and bloops -- hardly music) and it's positively haunting. If this is all electronic, somehow the guy got the reed-organ almost perfect which is quite astounding in and of itself as high-harmonic bits are nasty to get right in elder analogue gear. This'd sound fabulous on Al's group's Wurlitzer.

Going back even farther into the depths of time, we have this one from the late 1950s, done on a very early synthesizer that from what I've read occupied an entire large room and was done using vacuum tubes (valves). Even though the recording is less than pristine, it's truly remarkable what could be done at the time -- and they actually used melody in this one, quite unlike the atonal and paceless s**t that consumed the 1960s and early '70s.

Finally, even though I frequently wish that we could back-time and eject the originator of "musique concrete" from the airlock it's possible that we'd never have had this gem which turned up as a cell'-'phone "ringtone" on some guy's mobile the other day at one of the local bars (I almost spat my teeth out I was laughing so hard for the likely-inadvertent juxtaposition of old and new). There will be at least a couple of folks here who will also appreciate the video as it involves 78 revolutions per minute! (Or, even better, live.)