The Guestbook
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| Donald Bailey |  |
11.11.2011 | 19:40 |
| I started working at Honeywell in 1973 in a group that used H316 computers in electronic test stations. We did most of our work in Fortran IV. We developed a macro processor to help users create test programs. We called the macro language, ELAN. Thank you for collecting this information. | ||
| Paul Bonnett | |
22.10.2011 | 17:44 |
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I worked for Honeywell from 1973 until forever, in Hemel Hempstead. In R&D developing interfaces to above machines, including high speed paper tape and an unbelievably large 100mb disc! Thereafter European trouble shooter. Worked on 416, 516 316 and 716 over many years. I would love to get my hands on an old H716, it was my first love! |
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| John Murphy | |
10.08.2011 | 04:11 |
| I spent 4 years programmming and developing interfaces for the DDP-516 and H-316 systems. The first project was a suite of scientific routines for processing oceanographic data. The second and most complex involved interfacing a Navsat Receiver and a Loran-C receiver to form a real time precision navigation system for use by the US Coast Guard. My final system was for a government agency analyzing radar signatures. They were wonderful machines and got me started in a thirty year career as a computer systems designer and engineer. | ||
| Tobias |  |
31.07.2011 | 16:24 |
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Wow. Coole Sammlung. Mein kleiner Relaisrechner ist gegen die PDP ja nutzlos o.O Schöner Gruß aus Hörsum, Tobias |
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| Stuart | |
14.01.2011 | 09:27 |
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Hi, Very interesting. I worked on H316s in UK from 1973 through to 1976 (at Crosfield, then De La rue), then took 6 of them to Hong Kong where they were used to control high speed document transports that sorted lottery tickets. These machines worked in HK through to 1983 I think. They had mag tapes attached, up to 4 Pertec decks and also Mohawk MDS line printers. In all wonderful and impressive machines. I still have a box of H316 ICs that I would be quite happy to donate to anyone trying to get one of these machines going. Not sure which ICs they are but I seem to remember trying to get one of each. Thanks & regards, Stuart |
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| Tom Mikulic - Calcomp 565 | |
17.12.2010 | 11:35 |
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Phil, Are you OK? What happened to your email? Are you getting my email? Please reply, your Calcomp parts are ready for you! Cheers, Tom |
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| Jan-Olov Liljenzin | |
17.09.2010 | 12:39 |
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I am a retired professor at Chalmers, göteborg, Sweden. I learnt to write code very long ago (late 1950:is) on an (at that time very modern) Wegematic 1000 with drum-based memory. Later I came in contact with Honeywell and wrote some software for their H-516 (a faster precursor to H-316). Their development department was impressed and they sent me a complete H-516 system with line printer and all which I could use for one year free of charge. Based on my experience with real-time process control, I founded a small company (Kd-Data AB)together with one of my former students. We wrote real-time software for Honeywell up to the end of 1974. We also modified and modernized a Basic interpreter for the H-316. The maschines (2 of them) I used had dual disk (single platter) drives made by Omega (the watch maker). Operating system with disks was DOS (Disk Operating System 16), Operating system in real-time applications was RTEX (Real Time Executive) or sometimes OP-16. The object code produced in the Fortran movie contained machine instructions for a hypothetical 32-bit computer. The loader then converted these instructions to the adressing mode of the 16-bit system. |
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| Bryan Dietz | |
31.12.2009 | 03:10 |
| Thanks for collecting this material. I worked on the H316 when I first started working at Honeywell right out of college. It was a great machine, and the H716 was even better. We used it for hospital lab automation, for data communication, and for process/machine control. BD. | ||
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29.08.2009 | 19:59 | |
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Wouhaa! What a site and memory! I learned at the engineer school in Paris (France) during the early 70's on an H316 ! And for my 4th year project I burned out this marvellous computer with the iron solder toll! The project was the automatisation of an electric train. This project was working fine untill the BOOM!  Many thanks and congratulation to keep alive this computer. Computer friendly!... pf |
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| Bill Brant | 12.08.2009 | 23:38 | |
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I did a lot of programming of the H-316 at the US Army Satellite Communications Agency at Ft Monmouth NJ around 1975-76. The H-316 were originally a part of the diagnostic hardware for satellite receiver stations. The basic idea was to airlift a semi trailer full of diagnostic equipment to a satellite receiver site having problems and do the diagnosis using equipment in the trailer. It really did not work out for reasons unknown to me, and we just used the H-316s as a general-purpose minicomputer. Our primary H-316 had 16k of memory, high-speed paper tape reader (the boot device), an optical card reader, line printer, ASR-33, CRT, a dual cassette tape storage device and 4x5mb disk drives with removable cartridges. I believe the operating system for that nearly maxed-out H-136 was called 'DOP' - Disk Operating System. If I'm not mistaken, the prompt for this powerhouse [grin] of an operating system was: I, U, L, or P> "I" was to initialize (format) a disk or a section of a disk "U" was to update disk - write the contents of core memory to a disk, thereby creating an executable program "L" was to load a section of a disk to memory (my coworker George used to patch programs in core, and then write them back to disk. I was always afraid he'd forget to add his change to the source code...) "P" was the powerhouse command of DOP - it both loaded and ran a program! (starting at 1000 octal/512 decimal - saving the first 512 words for storage) I programmed the H-316 in DAP-16 and FORTRAN IV. Many years ago, I had a binder containing the source code of the 316's FORTRAN compiler, but sadly, that is long gone. |
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| Tony Wardle | |
09.08.2009 | 23:11 |
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I learned to program on the H316 in 1973 at the Honeywell Training School in Hammersmith, London. Lecturer's name was Claire Hamilton Goodman. I only used DAP-16 (assembler) sometimes off-line for 'noddys' but most of the time running under RTX - Real Time Executive. As I had a hardware background I soon became expert at writing RTX device driver programs for the non-Honeywell vdu's and line printers that we used to buy. The main system I worked on consisted of two H316's which both had access to a 2mWord fixed head hard drive and both running RTX. Once we had the hard drive capability, I was charged with writing the necessary software to allow us to write source code straight to disk #off-line# and assemble it using a DAP assembler with a modified IOS #IO subsystem#. I still have the original H316 at home in my workshop though I haven't done anything with it for some 20 years. Its last task was to teach me morse code using a program I wrote myself and when I occasionally fire it up to see if it still works, that's the program that is still in there! The machine consists of, CPU, High-speed arithmetic unit, Real-time Clock, Honeywell High-speed reader & punch, HADIOS- Honeywell Analogue Digital IO Subsystem, Relocatable base sector, 32kw memory and a 120kw fixed head hard drive which currently doesn't work. It used to work in a H516 I had previously but when I transferred the interface and followed the Honeywell mods, I never got round to debugging it. As my company five of these machines, I have much documentation and many spares. |
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| Pete Anderson | |
06.07.2009 | 20:20 |
I just found this site by accident. In the late sixties, I worked at Honeywell CCD in Framingham, and two of us created a real time operating system for the x16 series. We called it RTX-16. I haven't seen any reference to it on these pages. I left Honeywell in 1971 to return to Florida. I have many happy memories of my short 'career' at Honeywell.  |
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| Geoff Smith | |
20.06.2009 | 21:22 |
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Just found your web page and seeing the photos of the 316R took me back a few years,(ok 30+ in fact). During the 70's I was a technical supervisor serving in the Royal Air Force working on an electronic warfare threat simulator, AN-MPS-T1a. The control and data collation processor was a DDP 316R, whose main function was to play "battleships" or "solitare" during the waiting time between missions, ( written in DAP16 and which the CO never knew about. Ha Ha ). Anyway if my memory serves me, the positional designator of the 316 was 1A5 (cabinet 1 unit 5) with the tape reader designated 1A3 (1a4 was a blank panel). The designator is shown in the top left hand corner of the photo. This system was designed and built by General Dynamics, Fort Worth, Texas. Hmm ring any bells. I believe the 316's were replaced in the early 80's for a "better" machine. I still remember typing source code on a KSR 35 and trying to get the *'s and X's in the right place for "battleships". Will now try again. Oh wasted youth.  |
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| Les Figg | |
18.08.2008 | 23:59 |
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I just stumbled across your great discussion on your H316R computer. I wonder if you know about the following deployment of H316R computers by NASA back in the 1970s: "The SCE (Spacecraft Command Encoder) system achieves flexibility through use of a digital computer (H-316, refer to para 3.8.2) which may be programmed to accommodate a wide variety of formats by varying individual programmable parameters. These parameters are clock frequency, data frequency, clock-to-subcarrier frequency ratio, clock-to-subcarrier phase ratio, modulation index, message length, bits per frame, tone/space duration, and sequence interval. Table 3-9 indicates the ranges of some of these parameters along with other pertinent SCE data and tolerances. In normal operation, program information for a specific spacecraft project is located on a casse.tte tape reserved for that project. This may be read onto a 4-million bit disc memory system where it is stored along with data for other spacecraft. When needed, the data is transferred to the SCE 20 k word core memory for processing and subsequent transmission to the spacecraft. The SCE system, in addition to its prime function of generating and transmitting spacecraft commands, generates control messages for local printout and/or transmission back to the control center. An example of this type message is the pass summary message, which summarizes the command actions for a particular pass. The SCE system will eventually replace most of the encoders which are currently in use. One of the current systems widely used is the Consolidated Systems Corporation (CSC) encoder which is capable of generating both tone and tone digital commands. A second example is an encoder used for OGO and other satellite projects which generates both tone and PCM/FSK commands. An updata buffer is still being used for manned flight support; this unit accepts digital data from an on-station computer and converts it to the PCM/PSK format as described earlier for the Apollo program. Ref: http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19750071915_1975071915.pdf I worked at Carnarvon NASA Space Tracking Station in 1970/71 in the computer department. Although we employed a H316R there, I never actually worked on it. |
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| Scott | |
01.08.2008 | 09:08 |
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HI, Just found your site, so many memories. I used to service/repair H316s in Australia in the early 80s. The system were used by the Bureau of Statistics, TAX Department etc and usally had Data Products line printers, multiple tape drives synchronous comms contraollers and diablo cartridge hard drives and fixed head drives for oberlay. Incidently the CPU had a DMA transfer option, Main application was key to disk netry. Good memories |
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| Bryan Brodie | |
03.02.2008 | 06:48 |
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love your website. i learned to program in 1973 on an HP2000 minicomputer. remember this generation of hardware very well - it was good engineering! thanks for the great links! |
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| Andreas | |
11.11.2007 | 20:52 |
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Hallo auch, schön mal wieder einen "Honiggut" zu sehen. 1982 war das der erste Computer, den ich in der Informatik-AG unserer Schule bearbeitet habe. Wir hatten zwei H316B. Einen mit 16k Speicher, einen mit 8k, allerdings war der defekt, diente nur als Stromversorgung für den Teletype. An Peripherie hatten wir Lcohstreifenleser, Stanzer, Teletype, einen Typentafel-Drucker und ein 2 MB (sic!) Magnettrommelspeicher. Programmiert haben wir in Basic (Interpreter vom Lochstreifen zu laden) und Fortran IV (von Magnettrommel zu laden). Den "Key-In-Loader" mussten wir gelegentlich binär eingeben :-) Schön, das es solche Maschinen noch gibt. |
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| Oliver Lehmann | |
28.10.2007 | 19:07 |
Schoene Seite. Ich schaue alle halbe Jahre mal vorbei und gucke obs was neues gibt  Zwischendurch bin ich mit meinem eigenen Hardware-Ungetuem beschaeftigt (http://www.pofo.de/P8000) - wenn auch neuer als deins.Interessante Story mit der Maschine aus Texas. Da hat wohl jemand grosses Glueck gehabt. |
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| Douglas A. Gwyn | |
23.08.2007 | 17:04 |
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It's nice to see such good work on restoration of an important piece of computing history. I programmed DDP-516s at the US Army Security Agency, Ft. Devens, where they were used to drive multiuser Morse code instruction stations. Currently I'm using software emulations, which is more convenient than the real thing but somehow less fun. At the same site mostly I worked with a CDC 1700, and am developing an emulation of that in my spare time. (I need system software for the 1700!) |
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