#corememory

A Universal Core Memory

We were all just tiny, damp burritos waiting for our fate to be decided by a Disney-themed tracksuit. The vulnerability of standing there shivering while Mom looked for matching socks is a trauma we all share.

I was just scrolling through my gallery today and biglang lumabas 'tong mga 'to. Fresh na fresh pa rin sa memory ko yung lamig kahit 2026 na! Mt. Pulag you were a literal fever dream.

Bago kami sumabak sa trail, we gathered around the table at the base. Siyempre, may naglabas ng pampainit... alcohol daw to condition the body sa sobrang lamig. I don’t really drink and di ko na maalala if I actually took a shot (baka kape?!) but the warmth definitely came from the conversation. Strangers kami nung una but we became teammates after those late-night talks.

Syempre, hindi mawawala yung mandatory Eagle and Eye hand signs sa Ambangeg office. Requested ng guide namin na sobrang bait! Fresh pa kaming lahat dito. Di pa namin alam na yung pagpapakulo ng tubig sa malaking kaldero (yung pang-carenderia!) ay aabutin ng siyam-siyam bago uminit. The cold was burn-your-skin levels na talaga!

Eto yung plot twist.... I ended up trekking with a policewoman (yung naka-red bonnet). Jusko, akala ko chill hike lang! Niyaya ba naman akong mag-advance at tumakbo ahead of the others. Iba yung training niya, pang-Marawi! 😂 Dahil sa bilis namin, we reached the base camp way faster than expected.

Pero nung narating ko na yung summit ng 6:00 AM, literal na gumagapang na ako sa pagod. And there it was... the sound of betrayal! Napunit yung pants ko sa gitna!

Standing at the highest point in Luzon with a giant hole in my pants? Iconic.

The Squad & My Hair Strategy

Si Engineer na relaxed lang in red. Si Teacher naman our Selfie/Groupie Queen na hindi titigil hangga't walang wacky shot. And Me... standing there with my lumalaban hair. Dahil sa gel, hairspray and hair cream mula Pasay, wind-proof na yung buhok ko. Di ako nakapag-shampoo kasi feeling ko magyeyelo ako sa banyo!

Our guide in blue... conqueror pala siya ng highest peaks even outside the Philippines! I remember him constantly calling me nung nasa van pa lang kami and even pagkarating. Sabi niya, may sasabihin daw siyang seryoso but he never got to say it because biglang may lumapit sa amin. Hanggang ngayon, mystery pa rin sa akin kung ano dapat 'yun.

Akala namin tapos na nung nakababa kami. Pero sa Pangasinan, malapit sa CityMall, nasiraan pa kami ng gulong! 2 hours kaming nakatambay sa labas, just scrolling through these very photos habang inaayos yung van.

🎄💾🗓️ Day 11: Retrocomputing Advent Calendar - The SEL 840A🎄💾🗓️

Systems Engineering Laboratories (SEL) introduced the SEL 840A in 1965. This is a deep cut folks, buckle in. It was designed as a high-performance, 24-bit general-purpose digital computer, particularly well-suited for scientific and industrial real-time applications.

Notable for using silicon monolithic integrated circuits and a modular architecture. Supported advanced computation with features like concurrent floating-point arithmetic via an optional Extended Arithmetic Unit (EAU), which allowed independent arithmetic processing in single or double precision. With a core memory cycle time of 1.75 microseconds and a capacity of up to 32,768 directly addressable words, the SEL 840A had impressive computational speed and versatility for its time.

Its instruction set covered arithmetic operations, branching, and program control. The computer had fairly robust I/O capabilities, supporting up to 128 input/output units and optional block transfer control for high-speed data movement. SEL 840A had real-time applications, such as data acquisition, industrial automation, and control systems, with features like multi-level priority interrupts and a real-time clock with millisecond resolution.

Software support included a FORTRAN IV compiler, mnemonic assembler, and a library of scientific subroutines, making it accessible for scientific and engineering use. The operator’s console provided immediate access to registers, control functions, and user interaction! Designed to be maintained, its modular design had serviceability you do often not see today, with swing-out circuit pages and accessible test points.

And here's a personal… personal computer history from Adafruit team member, Dan…

== The first computer I used was an SEL-840A, PDF:

I learned Fortran on it in eight grade, in 1970. It was at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, where my parents worked, and was used to take data from cyclotron experiments and perform calculations. I later patched the Fortran compiler on it to take single-quoted strings, like 'HELLO', in Fortran FORMAT statements, instead of having to use Hollerith counts, like 5HHELLO.

In 1971-1972, in high school, I used a PDP-10 (model KA10) timesharing system, run by BOCES LIRICS on Long Island, NY, while we were there for one year on an exchange.

This is the front panel of the actual computer I used. I worked at the computer center in the summer. I know the fellow in the picture: he was an older high school student at the time.

The first "personal" computers I used were Xerox Alto, Xerox Dorado, Xerox Dandelion (Xerox Star 8010), Apple Lisa, and Apple Mac, and an original IBM PC. Later I used DEC VAXstations.