[SunRescue] RE: chg subj. 4004's and nc mills

[Ron Wickersham]

> From: dave at cca.org
> 
> What machine was the 4004 in???

it was a single-board computer, for embedded systems, and was the beginning
of the STD buss (which still exists - modified for 8-bit systems and with
an eisa-type double layer connector for 16-bits).  we used it in a DRO
product for machine tools to handle in/mm and offsets.
 
> What kind of NC equipment? I've been doing brass work with a CNC milling
> machine recently. (Photos: www.cca.org/dave/gallery7.html)

we run a Lagun knee mill that has a slo-syn controller originally for
paper tape, with the commodore 64 (running COMAL) driving the internal 
data buss (the control logic is 4000 series cmos (no lsi chips or cpu's) 
and the other machine is an Excellon drilling machine for pc boards with 
an even older GE MarkCentury controller with no ic's in the logic boards 
but it does have a 702 op amp in each servo amp!  in both cases i guess
the NC machines are now CNC (the computers do a lot more than just
buffer tape commands, they support even more than i see in standard
CNC controllers since you can program them).

nice brass designs.  and nice raw postscript.  also a raw postscript
writer here, but only for panel work.  always wanted to make ghostscript
drive an nc machine but never got around to it.  is that what you do?
or how did you get from postscript to g-code for the nc mill?

> Alembic - what about.... what was that guy that spun off from Guild,
> with the bizarre run-wires-off-both-ends-of-the-string pickup idea - 
> "Lane Poor" or something? Does he still make basses?

i'm not sure if he's still mfg instruments.  both he and his brother
Robert worked for Alembic at one time, don't think he ever worked at
Guild.

###

> From: "Ken Hansen" <n2vip at bellatlantic.net>
> 
> A calculator!
> 
> Seriously, I don't think the 4004 was ever sold as part of a commercial
> computer kit, but I think the 8008 may have been.
> 
> The 4004 was, IIRC, a 4 bit word computer chip... THe 8008 was 8 bit, and
> no, the 8080 was not an 80 bit chip ;^)

right, i heard the guys who did it at intel were supposed to make a
calculator chip for commodore but couldn't resist making it a little
more general purpose.  mind you it was a bit of a stretch to call it
a computer, since there were a lot of chips around it, but it did put
a big part of a computer all on the ALU unit.

-ron

Ron Wickersham
rjw at rfo.org                              rjw at alembic.com
Robert Ferguson Observatory project      Alembic, Inc.
Valley of the Moon Observatory Assn.     The best Basses in the world