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Canon DSLR Challenge | all galleries >> Challenge 68: Xtreme (host: Nico Conradie) >> Eligible > Thirteen Bytes
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May 26, 2006 Pops

Thirteen Bytes

A very small section of an IBM memory core. There are about 13 bytes visible (IBM uses parity so there are 9 bits per byte). Each "donut" is one bit of data. All the donuts were hand strung on the 32K panel.

Canon EOS 30D ,Sigma 17-70mm f2.8

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Guest 30-May-2006 04:52
Very remarkable. I spent years programming on IBM mainframes (yes, I can still write JCL in my sleep) with no clue as to the interior beauty of the hardware. -Michael
Canon DSLR Challenge27-May-2006 18:28
Hey, this one is set up differently :) Where are the sense and inhibit lines? I know you can get away without inhibit lines in some systems, but how does one get away without any sense lines? More magic. Pretty cool shot, too! Jim H.
Guest 27-May-2006 18:21
Measuring directly off the core panel there are 36 wires in 60mm. Because there is a lot of space between the wires and the "donuts" my guess is a "donut" is about .8 mm in diameter. That's extremely small. The total width of this picture covers less than 7/8" or 21mm of the core panel.
jnconradie27-May-2006 17:13
My goodness! Thanks for sharing a bit of "xtreme computer technology". What would the diameter of a "donut" be, approximately? Interesting photograph. Regards ~jnconradie