Really off topic now... was: Re: Face down,nine-edgefirst(whe rein all is revealed)

Russell Allen russell.allen at firebirdmedia.com
Fri May 12 02:12:30 UTC 2000


>> From: Dan Ingalls [mailto:Dan.Ingalls at disney.com]
>> (now don't get me started on printer music ;-).
>
>The system console on the 1900 series had a built-in speaker that clicked
>whenever a particular instruction related to a context switch was executed.
>We had a program that would play the Close Encounters alien theme on the
>speaker... if you ran it at a sufficiently high priority (and irritated all
>the users).
>
>Does anyone know of earlier *dedicated* sound hardware than this on any
>computer?  IIRC the 1900 series was c. 1965.
>
>		- Peter

The Australian CSIRAC computer (built 1949) had a speaker, which was used
to play "music" in 1951 (http://www.cs.mu.OZ.AU/csirac/console.html).

AFAIK this was the first (or very near it). 

Specs:
	CSIRAC - 1949
	Speed			.001Mhz
	Word size		20 bit
	RAM			768 words
	Disk capacity		2048 words bytes
	Power consuption	30,000 watts
	Weight			7,000 Kg

Not a laptop!

The best thing about this computer is the memory - Mercury Delay Lines -
which "stored data as a series of acoustic pulses in a 5 foot tube of
mercury, about 10mm in diameter.  A modulated pulse was generated by a
transducer at one end of the tube, and 960 microseconds later it arrived at
the other end of the tube where it was received by another transducer. The
modulated pulse was detected, amplified, re-shaped and re-generated, being
fed back into the beginning of the tube. "

Details at: http://www.cs.mu.OZ.AU/csirac/

:)
Russell

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Russell Allen

russell.allen at firebirdmedia.com

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