Minicomputers and peripherals
Control Data (CDC) Cyber 17, Cyber 18
1977 - 1980
- Elbit Computers
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 in Israel, by Elbit Computers.
In April 1980, I spent three (3) weeks in Bangkok, training a team of Customer Support Engineers of the local CDC company. I taught them "Olympus"; a proprietary interpretive language that offered low level commands, but had the look and feel of Basic; useful for writing ad hoc diagnostic utilities that helped calibrating peripheral hardware, or identifying eventual malfunction.
In the photo below:
CDC Bangkok Customer Support Engineers
and in the background:
PACT Mini Computer
Operator's desk console and keyboard,
600 LPM Line-printer on the left,
10MB Disk drive on the right.