That should raise a smile on any oldie's face.
You are a bit ahead of me. I was a student in 1967; but, I made a Storage Access Channel for the IBM 1130 for attaching nuclear instrumentation. I really liked assembler, and wrote in it almost exclusively for fifteen years. By that time I had written software on quite a number of big computers as well as mini-computers. I was very fond of the PDP-11. Later the Motorola 68000 won my assembler heart.
I'm retired now, but still have four clients. I build them micro controller based instruments and then write the software for them. I teach one class in the local high school: Embedded Computing. I use Arduino hardware, but I make them use gcc compilers directly, including a short plunge into assembler. One of my female students became so attached to assembler that she wrote her final project in assembler. Now she studies Computer Engineering at Georgia Tech. My students love to learn to use digital logic ICs, hook them to microcomputers, and then program right down to the metal. (Some never lose the deer-in-the-headlights look.)
I started using C in 1980, and still use it on those micro controllers.
Do you still have your boots on?
Oh, yeah. I've exchanged email with Dr. Donnamae White, author of AMD's bit-slice manuals, application notes, and training courses. She is 77 and still a fire-brand.
I LOVED THAT! What memories.
I was never as good with the machines as my husband was. I moved into computer language design, so my main tool was a xerox machine. I made more mistakes in two-upping my early magazines than you will ever imagine. I was in the contest to design the DoD-I language that became Ada - with the red team. We came in 2nd and Jean won the French Legion of Honor for designing the American defense language. Sigh. Then I chaired the SIG group for Programming Languages and ran a number of conferences. Started the Ada group and an Ada magazine and a Lisp magazine. Was Secretary of the X3J13 Lisp Standards Group for a while.
But languages got tiring, and I talked the IBM Research Director into letting me do something more fun and got an international multimedia magazine. That WAS more fun! Husband and I retired and he runs our computer world. Neither of us do any “real” work but we both work with a ollege professor (my 2nd, his 1st) on statistical analysis of poetry data.
Now all of that won’t turn you on, so I’ll pass your post on to husband who will be turned on by your hardware memories, and he’ll get back to you with joy.