Trivia
By Bob Plankers on Dec 9, 2008 in Featured, Trivia
It’s Tuesday, so it’s time for some trivia. I’ll post the answers around 2 PM CST. Feel free to beat me to it in the comments.
1. Who invented the first compiler?
2. What optical phenomenon is the basis for fiber optics, and is also how most automotive rain sensors work?
3. An early form of RAM was magnetic ceramic rings with wires threaded through them. What was the more common name for this memory?
4. What computer systems ran the operating system UNICOS?
5. What designation did Intel give 80486 CPUs with defective floating point units?
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9 Comment(s)
By Matt Simmons on Dec 9, 2008 | Reply
5) The Pentium?
*ducks and hides*
By Ernie Oporto on Dec 9, 2008 | Reply
3. Magnetic Core Memory
By chasmosis on Dec 9, 2008 | Reply
#5 weren’t those the 486SX (sucks)
By Rod G on Dec 9, 2008 | Reply
Don’t know any of these, but I used to know several of the answers…..
By Steve W on Dec 9, 2008 | Reply
1) Grace Hopper? or is this a trick question?
By Shane on Dec 9, 2008 | Reply
1: I agree, it’s Grace Hopper
2: Internal reflection
3: Core memory
4: Cray, I think
5: Dunno; I thot the defective FPs were Pentium first-gen.
By aharden on Dec 9, 2008 | Reply
5: 486SX
By mishigas on Dec 9, 2008 | Reply
I’ll keep with the ones I know…
2. Total internal reflection
4. UNICOS was by Cray and based on SVR2. I remember porting BSD lpr/lpd and Transcript to it back in 1988/89.
By Bob Plankers on Dec 10, 2008 | Reply
Oh crap, I got so busy yesterday I forgot to post the answers. Sorry!
1. Grace Hopper (props to Shane)
2. Total internal reflection (mishigas had the whole term)
3. Core memory (and hence the term “core dumps”) — props to Mr. Oporto.
4. Cray supercomputers ran UNICOS (Shane continues to dominate)
5. 80486SX. The add-on FPU, the 80487, was actually just a full 80486DX CPU with a working FPU. Props to chasmosis.