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Is there actually such a thing as a non-general-purpose computer? | 428 comments | Create New Account
Comments belong to whoever posts them. Please notify us of inappropriate comments.
Is there actually such a thing as a non-general-purpose computer?
Authored by: Anonymous on Monday, June 17 2013 @ 06:29 PM EDT
Yes! At least there has been. I remember crt-terminals ( VT-05 VT-50 VT-52 etc
from DEC ) that used a special-purpose-computer - 100% TTL logic - to handle
keyboard, screen, and serial-communication to the main computer. I also remember
medical radiation measurement instruments from Wallac OY with a rather curious
instruction set.
I suppose nowadays one would use a micro-controller but no such things were
available then.
Also the very early computers as Colossos or ENIAC as the Swedish BARK and BESK
and one in my hometown SMIL ( Siffermaskinen i Lund ) all of these were special
purpose computers as they had to be reconfigured to adapt to the computer
program one wanted to run.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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