ποΈ This is Tonette.
A reel-to-reel tape recorder from the 60s, born in the Polish People's Republic.
No tape counter, no Bluetooth, just pure analog charm and the soft hum of magnetic memory.
It recorded voices, silence, radio ghosts, maybe even love confessions whispered after midnight.
Built by ZRK, showcased at trade fairs, cherished in living rooms.
Now? A relic. A time traveler.
π The sound of spinning reelsβ¦ do you remember?
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ππΎποΈ Day 11: Retrocomputing Advent Calendar - The SEL 840AππΎποΈ
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 operatorβs 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 personalβ¦ personal computer history from Adafruit team member, Danβ¦
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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.
Serial no. 01 175Consisting of CPU with table and control panel, tape control unit, Processor Bays 2 and 3, core memory unit MG10, RH10 data
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.
This DEC PDP-10 KA10 Control Panel was donated by Bruce Maier of Long Island New York. The recently retired Mr. Maier operated this early D
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.
Dan kinda wins the first computer contest if there was oneβ¦ Have first computer memories? Postβem up in the comments, or post yours on socialzβ and tag them #firstcomputer #retrocomputing β See you back here tomorrow!
