I wish I was savvy enough back then to have learned FORTRAN or one of the other programming languages available on the system (when he bought a system, all of the software/manuals/tapes/disks/paper/cards/etc usually came with it). He had compilers for FORTRAN, COBOL and an EASYCODER assembler along with all of the manuals, but dad wasn't familiar with any of them or how to use them. He did teach me some machine language, mostly PDT instructions, and that was enough to get my juices flowing. It wasn't until your simulator that I really understood how the H200 control panel worked since all I had used was the console back then.
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Honeywell 200 resurrection
- Thread starter RobS
- Start date
Chuck(G)
25k Member
It's a bit more interesting in that this is Honeywell's own original product, before they bought out the GE operation in Phoenix.
Living near Phoenix, I've often wondered how much mainframe equipment is either buried in a landfill here or in a long forgotten warehouse around here. When I moved here, I scoured several electronics salvage yards but never found anything.
Chuck(G)
25k Member
A friend joined Honeywell in Phoenix at about the time of the changeover and invited me down for a tour of the plant. I witnessed the engineers working with a direct water-cooled design (apparently algae was a problem and the algacide used tended to corrode the plumbing). Basically, a bunch of racks connected by cables and pipes, all housed neatly in a shell that would probably serve as a VW bug garage. The test console used was a marvel, with nixie bar graph displays, etc. Prowling around the area, I saw various old GE iron tucked away in corners...
RobS
Experienced Member
As I explained in my article in RESURRECTION, the house magazine of the Computer Conservation Society here in the UK, my original reason for conceiving the project was as a way to get rid of a load of obsolete electronics stacked in my garage after my mother-in-law died and we had to move it all out of a shed in her garden in order to sell her home. Disposal of electronic waste in the UK costs money because of regulations about it, so making it into a working device, i.e. an H200, would mean that I could probably give it away for nothing eventually. Of course building the thing is costing more than scrapping the electronics would and I am acquiring even more obsolete electronics in the process so . . . maybe you're right actually.
Regarding IBM groups, my first postings and correspondence were actually with the people involved with the 1401 work at the Computer History Museum in California, i.e. LaFarr Stuart, Ed Thelan, Randy Thelan and Robert Garner. I was setting the record straight about the H200 not being a 1401 clone but a different machine in its own right. Yes, there are just too many people still on the IBM bandwagon.
Our company had a long successful working relationship with Honeywell and their computers until a new manager was brought in who only had experience of IBM technology, so he brought in a crony of his who had managed IBM systems at other companies for him and they scrapped all our highly efficient Honeywell systems lovingly developed entirely in house and substituted IBM technology that was years behind Honeywell's because of IBM's heavy support of their old customer base who were resistant to change. The result was dismal and I refused to work with the antiquated IBM mainframe systems so moved over to PCs using their O/S2, which was very good in comparison. Unfortunately we then switched from O/S2 to Windows on PCs, which was not so advanced and some of my developments simply couldn't run on it at all because I had used the cutting edge features in O/S2 as I do with any system.
They say that nobody ever got sacked for buying IBM but the IT division manager who was brought into our company to make the change from Honeywell to IBM was subsequently politely but firmly asked to resign, which he did, to the great relief of us IT staff. I have never had anything to do with IBM mainframe technology except out of necessity when interfacing with it from O/S2 and I wonder just how much of their reputation was deserved having seen what the BUNCH including Honeywell were achieving at the time. Of course the scene in the UK was different with our own national computer industry being more prevalent. The editor of RESURRECTION only accepted my article for publication because he considered it to be far better written than the usual stuff he got from the academic types working on restoration of our national treasures for our National Museum of Computing at Bletchley Park, which is what our CCS actually does.
I am definitely following my old school's lead in transatlantic relations. They are the only British school whose military style marching band has taken part in your Rose Bowl Parade and I appear to have been the only person to have had an article about resurrection of an American computer published in the CCS house magazine here. If you wonder which flag I choose to salute, it is blue with a picture of the whole world on it because I share a birthday with that organisation and so that flag has been flown on my birthday every year since I was one year old and I used to wonder what it meant. (Sometimes I still do actually looking at the current state of world affairs.) Consequently I regard a small part of Manhattan to be my personal home territory although I'm not sure how I could ever get to it without passing through the USA. Perhaps I could claim diplomatic privilege because of the birthday on my passport, but maybe not.
Regarding IBM groups, my first postings and correspondence were actually with the people involved with the 1401 work at the Computer History Museum in California, i.e. LaFarr Stuart, Ed Thelan, Randy Thelan and Robert Garner. I was setting the record straight about the H200 not being a 1401 clone but a different machine in its own right. Yes, there are just too many people still on the IBM bandwagon.
Our company had a long successful working relationship with Honeywell and their computers until a new manager was brought in who only had experience of IBM technology, so he brought in a crony of his who had managed IBM systems at other companies for him and they scrapped all our highly efficient Honeywell systems lovingly developed entirely in house and substituted IBM technology that was years behind Honeywell's because of IBM's heavy support of their old customer base who were resistant to change. The result was dismal and I refused to work with the antiquated IBM mainframe systems so moved over to PCs using their O/S2, which was very good in comparison. Unfortunately we then switched from O/S2 to Windows on PCs, which was not so advanced and some of my developments simply couldn't run on it at all because I had used the cutting edge features in O/S2 as I do with any system.
They say that nobody ever got sacked for buying IBM but the IT division manager who was brought into our company to make the change from Honeywell to IBM was subsequently politely but firmly asked to resign, which he did, to the great relief of us IT staff. I have never had anything to do with IBM mainframe technology except out of necessity when interfacing with it from O/S2 and I wonder just how much of their reputation was deserved having seen what the BUNCH including Honeywell were achieving at the time. Of course the scene in the UK was different with our own national computer industry being more prevalent. The editor of RESURRECTION only accepted my article for publication because he considered it to be far better written than the usual stuff he got from the academic types working on restoration of our national treasures for our National Museum of Computing at Bletchley Park, which is what our CCS actually does.
I am definitely following my old school's lead in transatlantic relations. They are the only British school whose military style marching band has taken part in your Rose Bowl Parade and I appear to have been the only person to have had an article about resurrection of an American computer published in the CCS house magazine here. If you wonder which flag I choose to salute, it is blue with a picture of the whole world on it because I share a birthday with that organisation and so that flag has been flown on my birthday every year since I was one year old and I used to wonder what it meant. (Sometimes I still do actually looking at the current state of world affairs.) Consequently I regard a small part of Manhattan to be my personal home territory although I'm not sure how I could ever get to it without passing through the USA. Perhaps I could claim diplomatic privilege because of the birthday on my passport, but maybe not.
durgadas311
Veteran Member
I've also seen that same scenario. And it's also been my opinion that IBM does not really lead in technology, but to be fair I think there have been exceptions. Their BlueGene supercomputers had a moment. Their s390 mainframe seems to have a solid following. And their PowerPC processors do have merits. But I've heard time and again, at least back in the 70s, 80s, 90s, that IBM's "new" technology was really 10 years behind what others were producing. But, many people felt more comfortable going with IBM - believing that IBM would move heaven and earth to fix any problem they had. Of course, my view of Honeywell is probably biased as well, just given the nostalgia for that period of time and being my first experience with computers.
Chuck(G)
25k Member
At the time of the 1401, few bought the 1401; rather, it was more commonly leased from IBM. There were third-party leasing companies who leased older gear. So the saying rings somewhat true...
RobS
Experienced Member
I think the situation in the UK was different from that in the USA because there was not such a large market here, so leasing wasn't so viable. Also British computer manufacturers had a larger share of our market. In fact I am currently arranging with our National Collections Centre access to the ICL archive there because as our primary national computer manufacturer they kept track of other manufacturer's technology, so their archive contains a useful collection of Honeywell manuals among those of many other manufacturers.
Honeywell's stated objective when developing the H200 was to market a machine that could potentially be programmed and operated by clerical staff with little or no previous knowledge of computers. That was why their training and reference documentation was very clearly laid out. Their chief designer emphasised this in a document where he set out the reasons for decisions made during the technical design. The decision to use binary addressing in place of the decimal addressing used in the 1401 went against this principle but was felt to be justified to make the hardware more efficient and hence cost effective.
Here in the UK, where machines needed to be bought rather than leased, companies assigned their most capable staff to programming and operating them to get the maximum return from the large initial capital outlay involved. Therefore, although the real world compatibility of the H200 programming language and architecture made the transition from ordinary office work to programming relatively easy for people like me, we had to push the machine to the limits of its ability quickly in order to prove to our very cautious company directors that further capital expenditure on larger machines in the future would be profitable. Also there were no suitable existing software packages for either the 1401 or H200 that we could buy in to achieve this, so we had to write our own from the very beginning.
I could always find ways to get our first tiny H200 to deliver more than anyone expected, so on the strength of its original success our directors continued to buy bigger Honeywell machines for a long time. That is why I conceived this project, to illustrate that first machine's remarkable versatility. I imagine that leasing machines and buying in ready made software packages from the outset did not put the same initial pressure on a company's computer staff to deliver substantial results so quickly. Both I and the company's assistant manager who had proposed purchase of that H200 to the directors were very grateful that it and the Honeywell field engineer responsible for maintaining it never let us down. I am still corresponding with and consulting that same engineer, who actually installed our H200 back in 1966, while working on this project. The banner page on my website specifically states that the project is a tribute not just to the H200 but also to the people like him who continually maintained its reputation.
Chuck(G)
25k Member
One aspect of the lease-vs-buy decision in the US was US tax law. As a durable good used in business, US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) law specified that a system was required to be depreciated over a fairly long period (10-25 years; I don't recall), with the tax paid incrementally, rather than the purchase be counted as an operating expense in the first year. There were in place regulations how depreciation for a given asset was to be calculation (i.e. straight-line, sum-of-years digits, double-declining balance, etc.).
Lease payments could be treated as an ordinary business expense.
US tax law was and still is a nightmare of regulations, both state and federal, which makes for a wise career choice in accountancy. Since the working life of a computer was far shorter than the depreciation period, it was financially advantageous to lease a system, rather than purchase one. Schools and universities, being non-for-profit enterprises were granted an exemption to this, so purchase was a good option.
It wasn't until sometime in the 80s that the IRS allowed a personal computer purchase to be treated as an ordinary business expense, rather than a punch press or building.
This area of taxation and investment tax credits isn't given a lot of play in historical discussions, which is a shame, as financial decisions are a prime driver of innovation.
Lease payments could be treated as an ordinary business expense.
US tax law was and still is a nightmare of regulations, both state and federal, which makes for a wise career choice in accountancy. Since the working life of a computer was far shorter than the depreciation period, it was financially advantageous to lease a system, rather than purchase one. Schools and universities, being non-for-profit enterprises were granted an exemption to this, so purchase was a good option.
It wasn't until sometime in the 80s that the IRS allowed a personal computer purchase to be treated as an ordinary business expense, rather than a punch press or building.
This area of taxation and investment tax credits isn't given a lot of play in historical discussions, which is a shame, as financial decisions are a prime driver of innovation.
RobS
Experienced Member
That may explain why I was able to acquire a control panel originally used in a college in Kennesaw Georgia. I think the other one promised to me in California had originally been on a military site there.
When our purchased company H200 here in the UK was scrapped at the end of the 1960s the control panel was very reasonably given to the chap who had pushed the buttons on it for several years. Unfortunately he dumped it when he moved house many years later. The 4K memory module from that machine was given to the assistant manager of the company who had in 1965 taken the initial risk of proposing buying this machine with no proven track record to our board of directors. He acknowledged that it had been my innate programming ability that had contributed substantially to the machine being the success that it was, but I didn't get given any part of it, but I am making up for that now with this project. Programming this machine has never been a challenge for me, but building one is proving to be a more interesting one. When we get to age 80, as I will this year, a good challenge like this one keeps us going I think. At least I sincerely hope it does.