Posts by R J Murgatroyd 3 publicly visible posts • joined 7 Jan 2008
I bought a small batch of the original ones and have a couple around the place. The one on my keyring is still bright enough to locate it with in a dim-to-moderately-lit room. It would be interesting to compare side-by-side with a new one. Are fresh batches of tritium readily available to fill these things with, do they put the same quantity in, is the phosphor the same etc. etc. There must be a way to compare them, any ideas apart from cough up for a new one?
The Cray's were certainly iconic machines. In front of me on my desk is a framed circuit board with the following caption:
"This Cray-1 S printed circuit board is a genuine part of the second supercomputer ever built. The computer arrived at Kirtland Air Force Base in 1980 and was used by the Phillips Laboratory (...) it was used to perform calculations, simulations and computer modeling to determine the effects of nuclear weapons detonations (...) on military systems and activities."
A great little souvenir that I picked up from the gift shop of the National Atomic (bomb) Museum in Albuquerque, at that time (pre-9/11)you had to get clearance into the air force base to visit the museum. I believe it is a memory card, it carries a bank of 32 surface mounted chips with an 'F' logo and the serial number 10470, plus other supporting chips.
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