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For Sale: Soviet Military Ferrite Core Memory Stack Cube and Manual

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Re: For Sale: Soviet Military Ferrite Core Memory Stack Cube and Manual

#61

Post by samstave »

neverm0re wrote: post #38
jacquesm wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, what a find. A tape based sampler. Amazing. That would be so much fun to restore to working condition.

You can build 'em out of essentially scrap parts fairly easily, actually. There's also dumps of the Melloton's sample reels floating around if you particularly want that sound rather than producing your own. Peter Christopherson and Chris Carter of Throbbing Gristle made their own tape loop sampler out of car tape decks, some simple soldering and a keyboard controller in the late 70s. They could control the pitch, re…

Watch this documentary on history of synth[1] -- Chris is in it...

My favorite though, is Skinny Puppy.

[1] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXm8O5cKrhI

Re: For Sale: Soviet Military Ferrite Core Memory Stack Cube and Manual

#62

Post by jdubs »

nsxwolf wrote: post #9
Nekorosu wrote: post #8

Absolutely overpriced.

Overpriced in terms of today's RAM prices (yes!), or overpriced for a Soviet 4K RAM module of its type? I've never seen one before so I have no idea.

Let me just call my Soviet era RAM module guy.

Re: For Sale: Soviet Military Ferrite Core Memory Stack Cube and Manual

#63

Post by goatforce5 »

I know of someone who has a piece of EDSAC (or maybe EDSAC 2) on his shelf. It looks very similar to:

http://www.chezfred.org.uk/University/ComputerXHistory/First...

He happened to be in the vicinity as it was being decommissioned. It's sometimes used as a doorstop.

Re: For Sale: Soviet Military Ferrite Core Memory Stack Cube and Manual

#64

Post by goatforce5 »

javajosh wrote: post #23
ck2 wrote: post #14

Is it just me or is that "art". Nice design. Weren't the Russians making vacuum tubes for decades after the US stopped and "perfected" them?

It is clearly a beautiful design - and the workmanship is incredible as well. I can't imagine how long it must have taken to build just one of those things. It reminds me of the workings of a fine mechanical watch. That said, I think it's grossly overpriced. Probably worth about $800-$1k (based on it's similarity to classic mechanical watches).

How many collectable watches are available vs antique Soviet memory modules?

Re: For Sale: Soviet Military Ferrite Core Memory Stack Cube and Manual

#65

Post by derekp7 »

Arnor wrote: post #54
unwind wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually traditionally it's 9 KB, or 9 KiB if you're into the modern binary prefixes. 9 kB would be 9,000 bytes, but this seems to be (4,096 * 18) / 8 = 9,216 bytes, which is exactly 9 KB. Or maybe I'm just a hopeless old f*rt for caring about things like this, and the world needs to get off my lawn.

I obsess over these pedantic differences too and I'm repeatedly pitches 3.5" floppies onto your lawn NERD SHAME EDIT: It's been a while... 3.5"

What must really drive you nuts about your 3.5" floppies are the fact that they are not 1.44 MB, or 1.44 MiB, or anything else that resembles 1.44 x some factor. They are actualy 1000 x 1024 x 1440 bytes (so 1440 KiB). The 1.44 on them is derived from a mixture of SI and Binary units.

Re: For Sale: Soviet Military Ferrite Core Memory Stack Cube and Manual

#66

Post by wmf »

Arnor wrote: post #54
unwind wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually traditionally it's 9 KB, or 9 KiB if you're into the modern binary prefixes. 9 kB would be 9,000 bytes, but this seems to be (4,096 * 18) / 8 = 9,216 bytes, which is exactly 9 KB. Or maybe I'm just a hopeless old f*rt for caring about things like this, and the world needs to get off my lawn.

I obsess over these pedantic differences too and I'm repeatedly pitches 3.5" floppies onto your lawn NERD SHAME EDIT: It's been a while... 3.5"

3.25"... is that a Russian format?

Re: For Sale: Soviet Military Ferrite Core Memory Stack Cube and Manual

#67

Post by MichaelMoser123 »

jacquesm wrote: post #19
feritkan wrote: post #6

So this thing runs in space? They went to space with this?

Judging by the time it was made it was at least intended to be used in a hostile environment. By 1983 the days of core memory were long gone so any application involving ferrite would have to be special to justify the additional cost over using semiconductor ram.

I think it was supposed to withstand the electromagnetic pulse of a nuclear explosion - Special toys for the military in preparation of WW3.

"Soviet Cold War–era military aircraft often had avionics based on vacuum tubes due to limited solid-state capabilities and a belief that the vacuum-tube gear would survive better." says http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_electromagnetic_puls

Re: For Sale: Soviet Military Ferrite Core Memory Stack Cube and Manual

#68

Post by jacquesm »

samstave wrote: post #61
neverm0re wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can build 'em out of essentially scrap parts fairly easily, actually. There's also dumps of the Melloton's sample reels floating around if you particularly want that sound rather than producing your own. Peter Christopherson and Chris Carter of Throbbing Gristle made their own tape loop sampler out of car tape decks, some simple soldering and a keyboard controller in the late 70s. They could control the pitch, re…

Watch this documentary on history of synth[1] -- Chris is in it... My favorite though, is Skinny Puppy. [1] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXm8O5cKrhI

thanks! watching the whole thing.

Re: For Sale: Soviet Military Ferrite Core Memory Stack Cube and Manual

#69

Post by jacquesm »

wmf wrote: post #66
Arnor wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I obsess over these pedantic differences too and I'm repeatedly pitches 3.5" floppies onto your lawn NERD SHAME EDIT: It's been a while... 3.5"

3.25"... is that a Russian format?

It's not exactly the most common but it exists and no, it's not Russian:

http://www.retrotechnology.com/herbs_stuff/325_inch.jpg

Re: For Sale: Soviet Military Ferrite Core Memory Stack Cube and Manual

#70

Post by skore »

mhb wrote: post #53
arethuza wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Mig-25 was fairly famous for using vacuum tubes - initially this was seen as rather funny in the West then people realised that they actually had some distinct advantages, including alleged resiliance to the EMP from nuclear explosions: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikoyan-Gurevich_MiG-25

As well as the audiophile-pleasing sound on those planes.

You can't really "measure" or double-blind test how well this thing kills people. Only if you have well developed taste can you appreciate the finer details, the warmth, the clarity, the fidelity.
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