On Mon, 10 Sep 2007 14:52:22 -0400, William Donzelli wrote:
>> That doesn't make sense.
>> How would you manage time-outs and other events sensitive to the passage of
>> time?
>
>Programmable one-shots would work, but that would be disgusting.
>
>I think Sutherland meant the internal clock for pulsing the logic
>circuits, rather than a TOD clock.
>
Did the 1401 have a program timer? I suspect it relied more on
a technique described by Knuth for a hypothetical computer for
instructional purposes:
... There is no "tape check" indicator, etc., to cover
exceptional conditions on the peripheral devices. Any
such condition (e.g. paper jam, unit turned off, out of
tape, etc.) causes the unit to remain busy, a bell rings,
and the skilled computer operator fixes things manually
using ordinary maintenance procedures.
-- gil
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