"If it works, do not touch." Old iron still benefits

Surprisingly, some private firms and government organizations still use computer equipment many years ago . They believe that if a device does its job, then why change it?


^{IBM 402 programmable electromechanical tabulator at Sparkler Filters}

For example, the manufacturer of the filters Sparkler Filters (Texas) is still accounting for the electromechanical tabulator made in 1948. The company does not see the point of investing money in retraining of employees and upgrades, if everything works fine anyway.

IBM 402 processes information on punch cards and outputs the result to a paper tape. Tabs of this type have been manufactured in the USA since 1890, and their inventor Hermann Hollerith founded the TBC (Tabulating Machine Company) company, which since 1924 has been renamed IBM.
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The Hollerith punch card of the sample of 1890 underwent several format changes, and in 1928 the standard format of 12 lines and 80 columns was introduced. This is the format used by Sparkler Filters so far.


^{IBM 029 punch cards and punch for data entry}

As well as 60 years ago, the tabulator makes the salary sheet, keeps account of sales and the rests in a warehouse.

A universal panel (plugboard) is used for programming the tabulator, in which the necessary contacts are connected by wires.





At Sparkler Filters, old programs are not thrown away, but neatly archived. Perhaps they will be needed in the future.


^{Archive for IBM 402 at Sparkler Filters}

In 2010, one of the computer museums sent a delegation to Sparkler Filters with a request to donate a car to the museum, but the company’s management refused.

Old computer equipment, if desired, can be found on the streets of major cities. In New York, there are ATMs and terminals that run OS / 2. For example, such terminals sell MetroCard cards on the subway.

A state audit in the US Secret Service revealed that this office used the mainframe production of the 1980s until 2011, and it was in working condition only 60% of the time. It is said that computers of about the same age are installed in the Minuteman intercontinental ballistic missile control system. The latest generation of these LGM-30G rockets was put on duty in 1970-1979 and the software was not updated.

Some US Navy radars and UK Atomic Weapons Agency consoles (Atomic Weapons Establishment) still work on PDP computers made in the 1970s. Another user of these “mini-computers” manufactured by DEC is the French aircraft manufacturer Airbus.


^{DEC PDP-11 (1972)}