As some of you know, for the last few weeks I have been researching the first commercial transistor computer, Metrovick 950 (and it is based on the first transistor computer ever, making things even more interesting)
Uncategorized
6
Posts
2
Posters
3
Views
-
As some of you know, for the last few weeks I have been researching the first commercial transistor computer, Metrovick 950 (and it is based on the first transistor computer ever, making things even more interesting).
I wrote the emulator for the computer, a simple assembler, and a handful of toys to get a grasp of the extremely frugal digital computing. What does it feel like to use a machine built on 250 transistors, operating at 200 operations per second or so? Can it display anime girls? (It IS a very important feature of any computer!!!) Is there even a point in such a computer?
I was hoping to write a long post about it, but my fatigue gave birth to a migraine (or the other way around), so the best I can do is to start a thread 🧵 It can be of interest for people who love computer history, want to know more about small computers of the 50's like the Bendix G-15 Usagi Electric has, and those who are thinking of building bit-serial computers.
The MV950 emulator repo: https://git.sr.ht/~nkali/mv950toy
-
As some of you know, for the last few weeks I have been researching the first commercial transistor computer, Metrovick 950 (and it is based on the first transistor computer ever, making things even more interesting).
I wrote the emulator for the computer, a simple assembler, and a handful of toys to get a grasp of the extremely frugal digital computing. What does it feel like to use a machine built on 250 transistors, operating at 200 operations per second or so? Can it display anime girls? (It IS a very important feature of any computer!!!) Is there even a point in such a computer?
I was hoping to write a long post about it, but my fatigue gave birth to a migraine (or the other way around), so the best I can do is to start a thread 🧵 It can be of interest for people who love computer history, want to know more about small computers of the 50's like the Bendix G-15 Usagi Electric has, and those who are thinking of building bit-serial computers.
The MV950 emulator repo: https://git.sr.ht/~nkali/mv950toy
@nina_kali_nina Your emulator was shared on Lobsters:
-
@nina_kali_nina Your emulator was shared on Lobsters:
@amoroso thanks for sharing the link! I believe it is a very niche project, but if other people like it, I'm happy
-
@amoroso thanks for sharing the link! I believe it is a very niche project, but if other people like it, I'm happy
@nina_kali_nina You're welcome. I think being niche is part of why it's interesting: emulators of very early systems are rare.
-
@nina_kali_nina You're welcome. I think being niche is part of why it's interesting: emulators of very early systems are rare.
@amoroso indeed! I know that mine is not entirely accurate (I mentioned the likely differences from the real machine in `errata.md`), mostly due to the lack of good documentation and real software for the computer. I hope to access the company archives one day to find more info about it and recreate the machine's behaviour faithfully.
-
@amoroso indeed! I know that mine is not entirely accurate (I mentioned the likely differences from the real machine in `errata.md`), mostly due to the lack of good documentation and real software for the computer. I hope to access the company archives one day to find more info about it and recreate the machine's behaviour faithfully.
@nina_kali_nina And now the emulator is featured on Hackaday and OS News:
https://hackaday.com/2025/09/21/first-transistor-computer-reborn
Gli ultimi otto messaggi ricevuti dalla Federazione
-
confesso che l'ho apprezzato per un lungo periodo, ma negli ultimi anni i suoi silenzi sono stati inascoltabili. Sarà l'età , bo.
-
@misantropo70 l'avrei scritta anche in inglese, ma ammetto di non aver trovato un'espressione che rendesse bene l'idea allo stesso modo.
-
@RainbowRemedy I chose an instance that matches one of my major interests, is hosted in Europe, and provides additional features such as Markdown support and long posts.
-
@francina1909
ahahahahah
-
@francina1909 mi immagino il tizio danese che traduce la tua risposta 🤣🤣🤣
-
@aeva *desperately looking for a silver lining* .oO( at least pathological still contains the word "logical")
-
La nostra bella Presidente adora il profumo del napalm al mattino.
Spese militari, l'Italia accelera: una mini-manovra da 3,5 miliardi per l'acquisto di armi | LA NOTIZIA
> La maggioranza accelera sulle spese militari, con una mini-manovra consistente in quattro decreti da 3,5 miliardi complessivi.
-
Anno 1962
Durata media di queste lavatrici : 30 anni.
#vintage #photography
