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America's feared nuclear missiles still controlled by computers from 1960s & floppy disks
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2614323/Americas-feared-nuclear-missile-facilities-controlled-computers-1960s-floppy-disks.html#ixzz307Xe1vML ^
| 27 April 2014
| By Joel Christie
Posted on 04/27/2014 1:30:29 PM PDT by dennisw
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To: DouglasKC
Nothing wrong with old technology if it works. And if its not connected to the internet then someone has to exploit it the old fashioned way....send in actual people to do the dirty work.
Agreed, plus is does not take much computing power to launch and navigate a missile or rocket to take the course it is assigned to. You could probably do that with a computer using only 4K of RAM, maybe even less.
41
posted on
04/27/2014 4:02:13 PM PDT
by
Nowhere Man
(Mom I miss you! (8-20-1938 to 11-18-2013) Cancer sucks)
To: Nowhere Man
I served as a Missile Combat Crew Member at FE Warren in the 80’s. If I remember correctly the Launch Control Centers had a piece of equipment called a Memory Control Group that was used for data storage. It had all of 64KB of memory! The missiles had pre-designated target data, if you had to change this data, you would have to enter the new data into a keyboard. Needless to say, if you effed this up you were a assessed a critical error! Our comm gear was garbage too, if you’ve ever seen the movie “Crimson Tide” they sent a messsage via the Survivable Low Frequency System (SLFCS), we use to code this damned thing up to encrypt messages using a stylus! The equipment we used back then was archaic, I can only imagine what it’s like now.
42
posted on
04/27/2014 4:20:02 PM PDT
by
RalphB
To: dennisw
Ahhh, the “click of death”. I remember it well.
43
posted on
04/27/2014 4:28:26 PM PDT
by
Fresh Wind
(The last remnants of the Old Republic have been swept away.)
To: dennisw
To: Bratch
“General, the machine has locked us out! It is sending random numbers to the silos!” “Well, just unplug the goddamn thing!”
45
posted on
04/27/2014 5:26:19 PM PDT
by
bobby.223
(Retired up in the snowy mountains of the American Redoubt and it's a great life!)
To: Captainpaintball
46
posted on
04/27/2014 5:41:01 PM PDT
by
EEGator
To: dfwgator
You always beat me. Kudos.
47
posted on
04/27/2014 5:43:15 PM PDT
by
EEGator
To: dennisw
This kind of ancient technology is probably almost impossible to hack, internet or no internet. Binary assembly code, and who knows if the source is even available. I remember guys debugging operating systems on CDC 7600 “supercomputers” by attaching homemade hardware rigs to register units to figure out why their code didn’t work.
48
posted on
04/27/2014 9:27:15 PM PDT
by
catnipman
(Cat Nipman: Vote Republican in 2012 and only be called racist one more time!)
To: dennisw
49
posted on
04/28/2014 7:48:52 AM PDT
by
a fool in paradise
(The new witchhunt: "Do you NOW, . . . or have you EVER , . . supported traditional marriage?")
To: RalphB
I served as a Missile Combat Crew Member at FE Warren in the 80s. If I remember correctly the Launch Control Centers had a piece of equipment called a Memory Control Group that was used for data storage. It had all of 64KB of memory! The missiles had pre-designated target data, if you had to change this data, you would have to enter the new data into a keyboard. Needless to say, if you effed this up you were a assessed a critical error! Our comm gear was garbage too, if youve ever seen the movie Crimson Tide they sent a messsage via the Survivable Low Frequency System (SLFCS), we use to code this damned thing up to encrypt messages using a stylus! The equipment we used back then was archaic, I can only imagine what its like now.
I wonder too. 64K, probably an 8-bit computer, that was the maximum RAM for an 8-bit system. I've been aboard a 707 Navy command post, the E-6 IIRC, and they still use equipment they used back in the Cuban Missile Crisis.
50
posted on
04/28/2014 5:28:08 PM PDT
by
Nowhere Man
(Mom I miss you! (8-20-1938 to 11-18-2013) Cancer sucks)
To: catnipman
This kind of ancient technology is probably almost impossible to hack, internet or no internet. Binary assembly code, and who knows if the source is even available. I remember guys debugging operating systems on CDC 7600 supercomputers by attaching homemade hardware rigs to register units to figure out why their code didnt work.
IIRC, I think they used the CDC 7600 to make computer graphics for the TV networks back in the 1970's. There was a rotating "N" for NBC in the mid 1970's that they used a CDC 7600 to make it with. It had a main processor and up to 12 subprocessors, an interesting and capable machine but it was water cooled.
51
posted on
04/28/2014 5:31:16 PM PDT
by
Nowhere Man
(Mom I miss you! (8-20-1938 to 11-18-2013) Cancer sucks)
To: EEGator
Ah, the old Sierra Online games. Reminds me of Leisure Suit Larry.
52
posted on
04/28/2014 5:32:09 PM PDT
by
Nowhere Man
(Mom I miss you! (8-20-1938 to 11-18-2013) Cancer sucks)
To: Nowhere Man
“It had a main processor and up to 12 subprocessors, an interesting and capable machine but it was water cooled.”
Yep, and it was shaped like a hollow box with a door-like opening in the middle of one side. You could walk inside of it and see the backpanel wiring on the inside of the box. The inside was big enough you could sit two people inside with a tiny table and have a (chilly) picnic.
And iPad probably has more computing power than that now.
53
posted on
04/28/2014 11:05:22 PM PDT
by
catnipman
(Cat Nipman: Vote Republican in 2012 and only be called racist one more time!)
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