Lesson plan
Datacomputer
The Datacomputer was an ARPANET-connected database system supported by the Computer Corporation of America in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It was intended as a computing utility sharing resources among multiple ARPA projects, in particular in seismology and climatology. It operated from August 1973 until 1980. It was hosted on a DEC PDP-10 running the TENEX operating system (ARPANET host CCA-TENEX, address 31) and was designed to support 3 trillion bits of storage (375 GB). Besides storage, the Datacomputer also offered data conversion utilities which supported the multiple data formats used at the time. The largest user of the Datacomputer was ARPA's Seismic Data Analysis Center (SDAC) (Alexandria, Virginia), which monitored underground nuclear tests. The Datacomputer manipulated data using a custom Datalanguage. A sample retrieval request: OPEN RESULTLIST ; OPEN WEATHER ; FOR WEATHER.STATION WITH REGION EQ 'MASSACHUSETTS' FOR RESULTLIST.RESULT, OBSERVATION WITH TEMPERATURE.MAX GT '300' /* DEGREES KELVIN */ RESULT.CITY = STATION.CITY ; RESULT.DATE = OBSERVATION.DATE ; RESULT.TEMPERATURE = OBSERVATION.TEMPERATURE ; END ; END; The Datacomputer hardware had a three-level store: primary core, secondary hard disk, and tertiary mass storage. At the time, disk cost about $20/megabit, while mass stores, typically robotic magnetic tape systems, cost about $1/megabit.…
Article summary
The Datacomputer was an ARPANET-connected database system supported by the Computer Corporation of America in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It was intended as a computing utility sharing resources among multiple ARPA projects, in particular in seismology and climatology. It operated from August 1973 until 1980. It was hosted on a DEC PDP-10 running the TENEX operating system (ARPANET host CCA-TENEX, address 31) and was designed to support 3 trillion bits of storage (375 GB). Besides storage, the Datacomputer also offered data conversion utilities which supported the multiple data formats used at the time. The largest user of the Datacomputer was ARPA's Seismic Data Analysis Center (SDAC) (Alexandria, Virginia), which monitored underground nuclear tests. The Datacomputer manipulated data using a custom Datalanguage. A sample retrieval request: OPEN RESULTLIST ; OPEN WEATHER ; FOR WEATHER.STATION WITH REGION EQ 'MASSACHUSETTS' FOR RESULTLIST.RESULT, OBSERVATION WITH TEMPERATURE.MAX GT '300' /* DEGREES KELVIN */ RESULT.CITY = STATION.CITY ; RESULT.DATE = OBSERVATION.DATE ; RESULT.TEMPERATURE = OBSERVATION.TEMPERATURE ; END ; END; The Datacomputer hardware had a three-level store: primary core, secondary hard disk, and tertiary mass storage. At the time, disk cost about $20/megabit, while mass stores, typically robotic magnetic tape systems, cost about $1/megabit.…
Key claims
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Discussion questions
- Summarise the article in your own words. Which single claim would you verify first, and why?
- Which claim in this article is most likely to be revised as the sources update? How would you check its current status?
- If two sources disagreed about one of these facts, what would you need in order to trust one over the other?
Bibliography
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Key claims and bibliography are generated from the same tracked claims and sources as the article page.