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> A lot of the theory behind information processing, and especially on
> finding the most efficient algorithm to accomplish a specific task,
> comes from this era. When a single clock cycle of computer time costs
> enough money to show up on a balance sheet, efficiency in computing
> becomes something of interest.
I'l bet it does...
Of course, today efficiency has nothing to do with how many instructions
it takes and depends *only* on how good its cache behaviour is.
> In the early 80s my high school went and bought a card reader for use in
> quickly tallying input from the 2000+ students on things like student
> council elections and so forth. They wanted me to help get the system
> going, but I never spent more than an hour or so with it.
Man, I had no idea card readers persisted so long!
> The US military had 50s-era cryptologic equipment, using vacuum tubes
> and magnetic cores, in active service until the late 80s. The
> transmitter and receiver together took up an entire equipment rack.
Ah yes, but that's military equipment. It takes a lot of time, money and
effort to design mil spec equipment. If it still works, why change it?
(Or rather, "who's going to pay to redesign it?")
> It
> was widely rumored among Air Force crypto technicians that the designer
> of the system had been committed to an insane asylum, and that nobody
> else fully understood how it worked.
That totally sounds like something the Air Force would rumour. ;-)
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