[Coco] The DOSes

[Stephen H. Fischer]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "K. Pruitt" <pruittk at roadrunner.com>
To: "CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts" <coco at maltedmedia.com>
Sent: Wednesday, April 08, 2015 9:22 PM
Subject: Re: [Coco] The DOSes

> 
> You thinking of the Altair 8880 perhaps?  It's often brought up in 
> connection with the Homebrew Computer Club and the two Steves (Woz and 
> Jobs).  I've only seen pictures of it.
> 
> I've heard the phrase deadstart used in connection with computers before. 
> But for the life of me I couldn't tell you where.

The CDC 3600 had a "Deadstart" button on the console for sure. 

I spent little time looking at and touching the CDC 1604. If I finished off the work for the CDC 3600 I sometimes walked over the building where the CDC 1604 was (4 AM). 

The CDC 6600 (c. 1964) had a dead start panel with 144 toggle switches; the dead start switch entered 12 words from the toggle ---> switches into PPU 0 and executed the instructions. <--- My words.

Google "cdc 6600 computer dead start button picture"

This URL may not work...

https://www.google.com/search?q=cdc+dead+start+button+picture&biw=1067&bih=509&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=IRUmVdThCdbXoAT3hoH4Dw&ved=0CDgQ7Ak#tbm=isch&q=cdc+6600+computer+dead+start+button+picture&imgrc=lR99EjUkZTO5GM%253A%3BKCyasJtvlyS_1M%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fed-thelen.org%252Fcomp-hist%252F6600DeadStartPanel-.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fed-thelen.org%252Fcomp-hist%252Fvs-cdc-6600.html%3B457%3B700

Altair 8800 sounds right. Was it on the cover of Popular Science? 

There was almost a match for the CDC 6600 PPU instructions and the 6502 CPU.

> Homebrew Computer Club

I was there, but after the Apple was shown and most of the excitement was over. 

(SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory - Stanford University)

SHF