[time-nuts] Digital Clock kit - no Integrated circuits!

[J. Forster]

In 1979 I went to the People's Republic of China with a delegation and a
Data General Nova 1200 computer. In Shanghai, I was proudly shown a
Chinese clone of the Nova, but the boards were huge (much bigger than the
Nova's 15" x 15").

The Chinese had taken all the MSI in the 'puter and broken it down to
simple SSI ICs of Chinese manufacture and built a machine functionally
identical with the Nova. In fact, they ran a DG diagnostic for me called
NMORT, the multi-programming reliability test.

They also had a hard disk about the size of a small washing machine. It
was really quite impressive. The whole setup was in a room, maybe 30'
square, with a polished wood floor and several techs in white coats.

All in all, an interesting experience.

Best,
-John

=============


> Hi
>
> Yes indeed.
>
> A lot of this was worked out a very long time ago. Most of what you see on
> the net these days is simply an IC circuit broken out into a bunch of
> discrete parts. IC's have different issues than discretes.
>
> Bob