Re: Rewrite BASIC language today?

"rhnlogic" <rhnlogic@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message 
news:dd145050-6655-4c0e-aa72-d9a3f582d320@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> On Apr 29, 9:54 am, "Tom Lake" <tl...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:

>> No, the original BASIC ran on a GE mainframe and had adequate core
>> (Known as RAM to you kids!) to run without chopping off the function 
>> names.
>
> Mainframe and "adequate core" are relative terms.  A GE-235
> mainframe, on which BASIC was developed, had 8 to 16
> kilowords of core memory (with 2.5 8-bit bytes per 20-bit
> word, or 20 to 40 kBytes total, less than the amount of
> cache memory on some of today's ARM cell phone processors)
> and had a memory cycle time of 167 kHz.

That's true but the 16 KW was plenty for the original BASIC.
That just shows how bloated current OSes have become!
There was a second GE communications computer connected
that was dedicated to I/O processing and that system could
handle dozens of simultaneous users even as small as it is by
today's standards.  It was an exciting time in Phoenix and
Schenectady where the GE plants were!

Tom Lake