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Information Technology

Engineering


Supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA)
pdf Onspec - IBM PC SCADA
pdf Pascal MT+
pdf Elcon - PDP11 SCADA
pdf PDP11 Macro11 Assembler
RealTime Language RTL/2
1985 - 1989

- South Africa (Johannesburg)
  • Bateman Process Instrumentation

Industrial Process Control Automation
pdf Manufacturing
pdf Software Development
pdf Process Control Language PCL
pdf Commander microcomputer
pdf Motorola 6800 microprocessor
1982 - 1984

- South Africa (Johannesburg)
  • pdf Messina Electronics
  • Sugar Mills: Amatikulu, Darnell
  • Breweries: Garankwa, Alrode
  • Soap: Uniliver
  • Messina Mines

Telecommunications Marketing
1981

- South Africa (Johannesburg)
  • STC (Standard Telephones & Cables)

Minicomputers and peripherals
Control Data (CDC) Cyber 17, Cyber 18
pdf PACT minicomputer
pdf Cartridge Disk Drives
pdf Storage Media Drives
pdf Tape (VCTT) Drives
pdf Card Readers
1977 - 1980

- Israel (Haifa)
  • Elbit Computers

Tablet/Mobile website
Tablet/Mobile website

Elbit Computers Ltd - Haifa, Israel [1977 - 1980]



    » Click on photo for details «
Elbit's PACT [1979] - Click for more details
In the 70s, Electronics was considered the world's most sought technology. Computers were somewhat holy and were housed in large air-conditioned rooms on "floating floors".

Unlike today's micros, 16-bit processors were built with "Large Scale Integrated" (LSI) circuit and "bit slice" technology. Such processors were found only in so called "mini-computers", the likes of the CDC's Cyber17 or the PACT, designed and built by Elbit Computers.
We used Cartridge Disk Drives and Tape (Vacuum Column Tape Transport) Drives for software and data storage. The disk drives had two magnetic platters, one fixed and one removable (cartridge) with a total capacity of no more than 10MB(!). Lager disk drives, called Storage Media Drives (SMDs) had a total capacity of 300MB(!), in large and heavy removable packs containing up to ten platters. Other peripherals used for data and programs storage and loading were Card Readers for IBM punched cards or Suggart 8 inch flexible diskettes, IBM (ball) printer, Centronics "matrix printers" or the larger and faster "line printers" 300, 600 or 1200 Lines per minute(!) driven either by a drum or a chain that pressed-printed the letters through an inked ribbon.

Occasionally we experienced a "hard disk crash" and were called on, to replace the "scratched" magnetic platter(s) and heads. The newly installed heads had to be re-adjusted ("cats eyes" technique) for "compatibility", using a specialised Customer Engineer's cartridge ("CE pack"). To avoid such disk crashes, we periodically vacuum-cleaned these drives and replaced their micro-filters, as preventive maintenance.
1977 - 1980

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