Hardware
The Honeywell 800 was a transistorized computer with magnetic-core memory. Its processor used around 6000 discrete transistors and around 30,000 solid-state diodes. [2] The basic system had:
- A Central Processor with 16 controlled input/output trunks
- An Input/Output Control Center (IOCC) with control functions for:
- A card reader/punch,
- A high-speed printer
- Up to four magnetic-tape units
- A control memory of 256 special registers of 16 bits each
- A main memory containing four banks of 2048 words. [3]
Extra peripherals could be added running through additional controllers with a theoretical possibility of 56 tape units. [3]
Up to 12 more main memory banks could be added. [3]
A random-access disc system with a capacity of 800 million alphanumeric characters could be added. [3]
Multiprogram control allowed up to eight programs to be sharing the machine, each with its own set of 32 special registers. [3]
A Floating-Point Unit was optionally available. The 48-bit word allowed a seven-bit exponent and 40-bit mantissa. So numbers between 10−78 and 10+76 were possible and precision was 12 decimal places. [3] If the floating point unit was not installed, the floating-point commands were implemented by software simulation.
Peripheral devices included: high-density magnetic tapes, high-speed line printers, fast card and paper tape readers and punches to high-capacity random access magnetic disc memories, optical scanners, self-correcting orthoscanners and data communications devices. [3]
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