General Information

Serial #

N/A

Part Number

1

Total Parts

8

AKA

N/A

Patents

N/A

General Description

METAL FRAME, METAL & SYNTHETIC CASING; SYNTHETIC & METAL TAPE DRIVE; SYNTHETIC CONTROLS & CABLES; SYNTHETIC & METAL PARTS/

Dimensions

Note: These reflect the general size for storage and are not necessarily representative of the object's true dimensions.

Length

96.5 cm

Width

57.0 cm

Height

84.5 cm

Thickness

N/A

Weight

N/A

Diameter

N/A

Volume

N/A

Lexicon

Group

Computing Technology

Category

Digital computing devices

Sub-Category

N/A

Manufacturer

AKA

Sperry

Country

United States of America

State/Province

Unknown

City

Unknown

Context

Country

Canada

State/Province

Ontario

Period

C. 1980 - OCTOBER 2000

Canada

PART OF SYSTEM USED BY CONSUMERS GAS (NOW ENBRIDGE) TO ENTER DATA PRIMARILY FOR ACCOUNTING PURPOSES. RECORDS FOR ALL COMMERCIAL OPERATIONS USING NATURAL GAS WERE INPUT THROUGH THIS CENTRE AS WELL AS MOST PRIVATE ACCOUNTS IN METRO TORONTO AREA. SYSTEM CONSISTED OF CONTROL UNIT & 8 KEYSTATIONS (2001.0113).

Function

CPU & CONTROLLER OF DISTRIBUTED PROCESSING SYSTEM IN WHICH KEY STATIONS (2001.0113) WERE USED TO ENTER DATA & SAVE IT TO TAPES ON TAPE DRIVE OF CONTROL UNIT (2001.0112); TAPES WERE SENT TO COMPUTER OPERATIONS ROOM & DATA WAS LOADED ONTO MAINFRAME COMPUTER; TAPES WERE KEPT AS BACKUPS.

Technical

APPLICATION OF DISTRIBUTED PROCESSING TECHNOLOGY WHICH ALLOWED SIMULTANEOUS USE/ACCESS BY NUMBER OF DATA ENTRY CLERKS IN OFFICE ENVIRONMENT. FROM MID-1960S, MAIN FRAME COMPUTERS WERE ACCESSIBLE BY MULTIPLE USERS, BUT FOR SMALLER, LESS DEMANDING REQUIREMENTS, XL40 WAS WIDELY USED. PERSONAL COMPUTERS SOON MADE DISTRIBUTED SYSTEMS OBSOLETE THOUGH THEY ARE BEGINNING TO MAKE COMEBACK.

Area Notes

Unknown

Details

Markings

PLATE ON FRONT READS "cmc XL40/ a division of Pertec Computer Corporation"; LABEL ON TAPE DRIVE COVER READS "9 TRACK/ 1600 CPI".

Missing

APPEARS COMPLETE

Finish

TEXTURED BUFF PAINTED CASING WITH TEXTURED BUFF SYNTHETIC TOP; TEXTURED BROWN FRONT PANEL; BLACK TEXTURED TAPE DRIVE DECK WITH "SMOKED" PLASTIC COVER & BEIGE CONTROL PANEL; WHITE CONTROL BUTTONS; BLACK POWER CORDS.

Decoration

N/A