tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2807403883562053852.post2073268628583414551..comments2024-03-27T08:40:31.785-06:00Comments on Clayton Cramer.: Speaking of Bizarre...Clayton Cramerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03258083387204776812noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2807403883562053852.post-9399593668201479192017-04-30T20:20:30.331-06:002017-04-30T20:20:30.331-06:00Those were the days!
While programming on the GE&...Those were the days!<br /><br />While programming on the GE'635 in 1969, I noticed that my program was crashing unexpectedly. I tracked it down to one instruction that, when executed using an unusual addressing mode, would sometimes pic a bit or two in an "indirect tally word." It turns out that the instruction had been added as a field modification, and the wiring was routed in a way that caused to much coupling between wires.<br /><br />We had another problem where the machine would just crash, hard. It happened any time someone submitted a job without enough memory specified.<br /><br />The engineer who fixed that, ironically nicknamed "Octal Fox" since he was missing two fingers, determined that when the job was swapped into memory, and part of it hit the memory protection, the I/O Controller would flash all three status lights (a code 7 error). That would glitch the power supply causing things to go nuts.<br /><br />On my first day on the job as a systems programmer at Hughes Aircraft, I ran a little seven card assembly language program to see if the field engineer or myself was right about a subtle feature. The program started, and the machine just stopped dead. This was a big machine - Hughes' only scientific/engineering computer - and it just stopped running. It didn't crash, it froze. That meant that my guess about what the program would do was correct. But, doing it in the middle of the day was perhaps not the best thing to do.StormCchaserhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02998174514362089471noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2807403883562053852.post-82324079824985407082017-04-30T17:40:13.577-06:002017-04-30T17:40:13.577-06:00i'd be interested in reading it.i'd be interested in reading it.Jay Kominekhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10329111965764211579noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2807403883562053852.post-71373475518546182362017-04-30T10:32:53.712-06:002017-04-30T10:32:53.712-06:00Have you seen this yet http://www.catb.org/esr/faq...Have you seen this yet http://www.catb.org/esr/faqs/things-every-hacker-once-knew/Petrohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17851003426109622021noreply@blogger.com