Question plugboards

[shaharhada]

A stored-program computer is a computer that stores program instructions in electronically or optically accessible memory. This contrasts with systems that stored the program instructions withplugboards or similar mechanisms.
From Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stored-program_computer
in the first paragraph in the volume.

What is plugboards? (in simple English)

 

[kanewolf]

A stored-program computer is a computer that stores program instructions in electronically or optically accessible memory. This contrasts with systems that stored the program instructions withplugboards or similar mechanisms.
From Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stored-program_computer
in the first paragraph in the volume.

What is plugboards? (in simple English)

Did you read the Wikipedia page which is linked to the word "plugboard"?
It is very complete.

 

[shaharhada]

Did you read the Wikipedia page which is linked to the word "plugboard"?
It is very complete.

Yes, I saw it and it is hard for me understand from the link what is it?

 

[kanewolf]

Yes, I saw it and it is hard for me understand from the link what is it?

The first sentence says that a plugboard is a board with cable sockets. Look at the pictures. Cables are plugged in to the sockets to customize the function.
The inputs and outputs of functional blocks are routed to the plugs. Then they can be sequenced by using cables to connect the functions together. The input of an add function can be taken from the output of a different add function plus a value for example.

 

[shaharhada]

The first sentence says that a plugboard is a board with cable sockets. Look at the pictures. Cables are plugged in to the sockets to customize the function.
The inputs and outputs of functional blocks are routed to the plugs. Then they can be sequenced by using cables to connect the functions together. The input of an add function can be taken from the output of a different add function plus a value for example.

What are functional blocks?

 

[kanewolf]

What are functional blocks?

I put an example "an add function" would be a functional block. You don't know how it is implemented but you know the required inputs and the expected outputs.

 

[Paperdoc]

As a teen around 1960 I remember seeing these plugboards. In the paper mill in our small town the Accounting department used these boards in an IBM data processing machine to process weekly payroll information, for example. At that time all hourly employees used standard punched cards and clock systems to record their work times, and the info thus printed on the card was then actually punched into the card by a person operating a card punch machine. Those became the input medium for payroll data. The head of the payroll group created and maintained the boards for insertion into the processing machine. My understanding at the time was that each jumper wire created a connection from one circuit to another, those circuits being part of the processor machine. Each circuit carried out a small mathematical or logical operation. So the board defined a sequence of small operations to achieve the overall result. It WAS a data processing PROGRAM to be executed in the main machine. Separate boards were created, stored and re-used for different processing tasks. The main machine was a collection of circuits to read inputs (e.g, punched cards), perform operations and print out results (e.g. paychecks). The boards were the instruction sequence to achieve a particular end result. So the boards were the means of storing the programs, separate from the processor system.

 

[shaharhada]

As a teen around 1960 I remember seeing these plugboards. In the paper mill in our small town the Accounting department used these boards in an IBM data processing machine to process weekly payroll information, for example. At that time all hourly employees used standard punched cards and clock systems to record their work times, and the info thus printed on the card was then actually punched into the card by a person operating a card punch machine. Those became the input medium for payroll data. The head of the payroll group created and maintained the boards for insertion into the processing machine. My understanding at the time was that each jumper wire created a connection from one circuit to another, those circuits being part of the processor machine. Each circuit carried out a small mathematical or logical operation. So the board defined a sequence of small operations to achieve the overall result. It WAS a data processing PROGRAM to be executed in the main machine. Separate boards were created, stored and re-used for different processing tasks. The main machine was a collection of circuits to read inputs (e.g, punched cards), perform operations and print out results (e.g. paychecks). The boards were the instruction sequence to achieve a particular end result. So the boards were the means of storing the programs, separate from the processor system.

O.K. Thanks (to both of you).

(I didn't understand->)
What is payroll information?

 

[kanewolf]

O.K. Thanks (to both of you).

(I didn't understand->)
What is payroll information?

The process of a business paying their employees.