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Oldies but goodies. (Letters).


What is reported in "Loony Tunes: Bugs blare in software set to music" (SN: 11/30/02, p. 339) is a new application of an old idea. In the 1950s and early 1960s, engineers would check a computer by setting a radio beside the central processing unit See CPU.

(architecture, processor) central processing unit - (CPU, processor) The part of a computer which controls all the other parts. Designs vary widely but the CPU generally consists of the control unit, the arithmetic and logic unit (ALU), registers, temporary buffers
 to pick up the electromagnetic signals put out by switching vacuum tubes This is a list of vacuum tubes: American designation (with European equivalents)
RETMA tube designation
0
  • 0Z4 Full-Wave Gas Rectifier
2 volt heater/filament tubes
 and, later, transistors. By programming so that the switching played a familiar tune, the engineer could detect instantly where bugs were. Some of us from those years can recall standing around a $6 million computer listening to it play "Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" is a popular Christmas story about Santa Claus' ninth and lead reindeer who possesses an unusually red colored nose that gives off its own light that is powerful enough to illuminate the team's path through inclement weather. " for a Christmas party at Cape Canaveral Cape Canaveral (kənăv`ərəl), low, sandy promontory extending E into the Atlantic Ocean from a barrier island, E Fla., separated from Merritt Island by the Banana River, a lagoon; named (1963) Cape Kennedy in memory of President John .

WAYNE MCCOY, POOLESVILLE, MD.

I worked for Control Data Corp. from 1962 to 1964. I distinctly remember being impressed by a snappy version of a polka that the programmers used to quickly isolate defective cards plugged into the first mainframe computers. This was done by tuning a portable radio near the frame.

JOHN D. SHOTZBARGER, MINNEAPOLIS, MINN MINN Minnesota (old style) .
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Publication:Science News
Date:Feb 1, 2003
Words:166
Previous Article:Picture this. (Letters).
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