
The best small computer in the world (1968) [pdf] - mjbellantoni
http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/text/Data_General/DGC.Nova.1968.102646102.pdf
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muyuu
I find it quite amusing that the photo-models are the president and the vice
president looking manly.

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awor
and smoking!

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sengstrom
Nothing like having Don Draper make promo shots for your new computer.

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waterlesscloud
That photo of Herbert J Richman is a pure classic.

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mjbellantoni
This actually does remind me of classic Oglivy work.

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jejones3141
Wow... my first exposure to a computer was a Supernova, set up with four
ASR-33 Teletypes and running Data General BASIC, for about eight or nine
evenings in the spring of 1971. Changed my life--the next year, without a
computer to use, I wrote programs in a notebook which I wish I had kept.
Thanks, Data General, NSF, and thanks to Dr. Richard V. Andree.

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watmough
What would be the typical use of a machine like this? I'd assume basic roll-up
accounting, with programs written on a custom basis per client.

Anyone with practical experience?

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jonjacky
They were marketed for embedded control and data acquisition in laboratories
and factories. See the text on page 5, in "The hardware", where it tells how
you can send your program on paper tape to DG and they send you back a read-
only memory you can plug in - so your program begins running on power-up
without help from an operator.

I recall seeing a Nova used in an experimental psychology lab. The first
production medical CT scanner included a Nova, see
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-ray_computed_tomography](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-ray_computed_tomography).

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johnohara
Before "The Soul of a New Machine."

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mjbellantoni
I actually just finish reading that and it's what lead me to this!

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greenyoda
Here's a picture of the Eclipse MV/8000 "Eagle", the machine they were
building in the book:

[http://www.foxdata.com/blog/wp-
content/uploads/2012/08/Data-...](http://www.foxdata.com/blog/wp-
content/uploads/2012/08/Data-General-Eclipse-MV8000.jpg)

"The Soul of a New Machine" is a great book, by the way, even if the
technology in it is a bit old at this point. Hackers of hardware and/or
software should definitely read it.

Another interesting book about the creation of a large system is "Show-
stopper", by G. P. Zachary, which describes the building of Windows NT.

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peterfirefly
Does anybody know more about FHP (the Fountainhead Project) than what little I
can read here:

[http://people.cs.clemson.edu/~mark/fhp.html](http://people.cs.clemson.edu/~mark/fhp.html)

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greenyoda
Here's an account of the Fountainhead Project written by Rich Wingerter, who
was a programmer working on the project:

[http://www.sonic.net/~richw/FHP.html](http://www.sonic.net/~richw/FHP.html)

While searching for this I also found an interesting paper on the Eagle
project:

"Flight of the Eagle: The Birthing and Life of a Super-Minicomputer" (1996)

[http://www.faughnan.com/papers/eaglecomp.pdf](http://www.faughnan.com/papers/eaglecomp.pdf)

