

Burroughs B6500 Status Report (1968) [video] - da02
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNBtjEBYFPk

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makmanalp
Burroughs is absolutely fascinating. In the video they mention:

2:50 Simulation, which I assume actually means a combination of integration
and unit testing.

3:52 compiler language! i.e. non-machine language

6:05 Some kind of integrated documentation process, I guess akin to rejecting
commits that don't have docstrings / sphinx docs included

6:37 "production unit" I wonder if that's where the terminology of "production
server" comes from

7:40 list of features including dual processors (SMP), virtual memory!

9:00 simultaneous software & hardware design process + automated wire routing
magic

...

This company lasted from 1886 building adding machines to 1986 when it got
merged with another company to form Unisys, which I guess didn't do so well
after that. That's a 100-year-old computer company! Some company records were
stored in UMN, would be interesting to dig into that sometime:
[http://discover.lib.umn.edu/cgi/f/findaid/findaid-
idx?c=umfa...](http://discover.lib.umn.edu/cgi/f/findaid/findaid-
idx?c=umfa;cc=umfa;rgn=main;view=text;didno=cbi00090a)

Also important to know that Dijkstra was a Burroughs research fellow. Must
have been an amazing place to work at.

More interesting stuff:
[http://conservancy.umn.edu/bitstream/107105/1/oh098b5c.pdf](http://conservancy.umn.edu/bitstream/107105/1/oh098b5c.pdf)
[http://www.academia.edu/1522947/Too_far_ahead_of_its_time_Ba...](http://www.academia.edu/1522947/Too_far_ahead_of_its_time_Barclays_Burroughs_and_real-
time_banking) [http://ed-thelen.org/comp-
hist/B5000-AlgolRWaychoff.html](http://ed-thelen.org/comp-
hist/B5000-AlgolRWaychoff.html)

~~~
acqq
Also:

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burroughs_large_systems](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burroughs_large_systems)

Knuth: Writing a compiler for the Burroughs Corporation
[http://www.webofstories.com/play/donald.knuth/27](http://www.webofstories.com/play/donald.knuth/27)

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nigwil_
A while ago I transcribed the voice-over of this clip as part of our efforts
to document and resurrect several early Burroughs systems:

[http://www.retrocomputingtasmania.com/home/projects/burrough...](http://www.retrocomputingtasmania.com/home/projects/burroughs-b5500/b6500-film-
transcript)

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dmethvin
The voiceover is William Schallert, who played Patty Duke's father on _The
Patty Duke Show_ [1].

[1] [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0769974/](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0769974/)

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morganw
Holy crap- automated wire-wrapping. I used a wire-wrapped Lisp Machine in 1984
like this one:

[https://plus.google.com/+DrewFustini/posts/Vfe6TsXVpZW](https://plus.google.com/+DrewFustini/posts/Vfe6TsXVpZW)

Zaphod and Arthur were made available to us. Arthur crashed more.

~~~
Taniwha
It's not that long ago I did my prototyping in wire-wrap - I still have proto
boards in wirewrap sitting on my old-stuff shelf. These days we just get
boards done in China and delivered in days. I think that it was largely the
shift to surface mount parts that killed wirewrap as a prototyping medium

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Taniwha
wow - of course this was pre-video tape - it really was a film shown to
potential customers

The free-form pseudo electronic jazz in the background makes it particularly
hard to listen to

~~~
joshrotenberg
_The free-form pseudo electronic jazz in the background makes it particularly
hard to listen to_

I don't know, daddy-o. Those cats were really flyin'. I dug it.

