Re: [TUHS] In Memoriam: Per Brinch Hansen

[Bakul Shah <bakul@bitblocks.com>]

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I think it is this one: http://bitsavers.org/pdf/regnecentralen/RC_4000_Reference_Manual_Jun69.pdf

Along these lines, at least one of Fujitsu’s high end network switches was described using PowerPoint slides. At one point while working for them I felt a software simulator of the switch would really help with testing switch software. So I started developing one on my own. That is when I discovered these slides were not only very detailed but also very accurate and quite clear. They answered every question I had during the development. I have never seen such /engineering/ use of PowerPoint anywhere else.

> On Aug 2, 2018, at 7:07 AM, Larry McVoy <lm@mcvoy.com> wrote:
> 
> I suspect not, I suspect his first reference is the one you want.
> 
>> On Thu, Aug 02, 2018 at 09:10:54AM -0400, Ben Greenfield via TUHS wrote:
>> Is this a weblink to that manual?
>> 
>> I want to read something so well written:)
>> 
>> Ben
>> 
>> https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/b77f/02dedb784a52229c5376277173c5ef6da5c1.pdf
>> 
>>> On Aug 2, 2018, at 8:44 AM, Doug McIlroy <doug@cs.dartmouth.edu> wrote:
>>> 
>>> A tangential connection to early Unix experience:
>>> 
>>> My collection of early computer manuals includes Brinch Hansen's manual
>>> for the RC 4000, which stands out for its precise description of the
>>> CPU logic--in Algol 60! It's the only manual I have seen that offers a
>>> good-to-the-last-bit formal description of the hardware.
>>> 
>>> DEC presented something of the sort for the PDP-11, but punted where
>>> the woods got thick. When I wanted to know how they computed the last
>>> bit of floating-point results, I got no satisfaction. Amidst a thorough
>>> description of addressing came this formulation of the actual computation:
>>> "form floating point result".
>>> 
>>> Doug
> 
> -- 
> ---
> Larry McVoy                     lm at mcvoy.com             http://www.mcvoy.com/lm 

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