On 25 Jan 2005 15:55:04 -0600, Dave wrote:


Don't remember what it was. 1620 sounds vaguely familiar. It was a
"scientific" computer, and we programmed it to do mortality tables for an
insurance company. I do remember that is was in a carefully temperature
controlled space, and the way we programmed it was to hand sheets with the
instructions to a punchcard operator who punched the cards and had them fed
into the machine overnight so we got a printout of the results in the
morning. Time was far too expensive to let the programmers anywhere near the
machine itself.

You describe the 1620 perfectly. It was even shaped like a desk with a
selectric on the desk for operator input. The punch-card
reader/puncher was another box about the same size.



Rodney Myrvaagnes NYC J36 Gjo/a


"Accordions don't play 'Lady of Spain.' People play 'Lady of Spain."