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 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html