Honeywell H200 L64 DPS7

Honeywell H200 (Medium-Scale Honeywell Systems)    Large-Scale Honeywell Systems

The first generation of computers that I worked on was the Honeywell H200 product line.  It was a character-oriented two-address commercial computer introduced by Honeywell in the early 1960s.  Typical configurations would have had 16KB of ram, a Card Reader/Punch, a Printer and a couple of 9-Track Tape Drives.  The 9-track open reel tapes we used across all lines encompassed 800, 1600, 3200, and 6250 bpi (bits per inch) densities. A 10" extra length tape, (3,600 feet) at 6250 bpi density could hold up to 180MB of data. The H200 used the 800 & 1600 bpi on 2,400 feet of tape.

Here is a video clip from the movie "The Billion Dollar Brain".  In this scene, Karl Malden boots the first 80 column card in to memory and hits run which continues the boot process.  The end result is something comes out on the printer.  This was how it actually worked, except for the fact Mr. Malden forgot to close the window on the tape drive: load a tape, boot the card reader and walk to the printer to see the result.  What a long way we have come from those days.

Honeywell L64, DPS7 & DPS7000

The next generation of computers, for me, was the Honeywell Level 64, which was replaced by the DPS7 and eventually DPS7000.  They all ran GCOS (General Comprehensive Operating System), but we use to call it Gods Chosen Operating System.  I worked on the L64 and DPS7, but used the DPS7000, as a customer, to run our first multi-tenant application in the 90's.  This application was used by Fortune 1000 companies, which included Railroad, Oil, Pharmaceutical, Insurance, and Telecommunications industries, as well as Government clients in the US & Canada.  It was used to manage the vehicle acquisition, maintenance and disposal processes to ultimately contain costs for optimal fleet performance.  A typical client started out with a 2400 baud Hayes modem and upgraded to a 9600 baud MNP.  Eventually, they switched to 14.4 modems in 1994 and 56k dial-up before the internet took off.  Below is pictured a Level 64, a DPS7 and then a DPS7000.

After working on Medium-Scale Systems, I was promoted to the Large-Scale Honeywell Systems.