The WS-01 uses a small fixed-head magnetic disk, not unlike the disk drives in computers today, but storing on a tiny fraction of the amount of data that today’s disk drives (or even disk drives of computers in the 1960’s) hold.
Functionally, the earlier WS-01 is identical to the WS-02, with the difference being the medium used to store the working registers of the calculator. The Wyle WS-02 is the second (and last) generation of Wyle Labs’ calculators. I’m extremely excited about this addition, as this is a very uncommon, and also somewhat historical machine due to what its development spawned.įor those that aren’t aware of the story, there is an essay on the Old Calculator Museum website entitled The History of Compucorp that goes into a lot of detail of how Computer Design Corporation was spawned from Wyle Laboratories. The machine is a Wyle Laboratories WS-02 Scientific. I have been searching for one of these machines for many, many years, and finally, one now makes its home here. The coolest thing is that just two days ago, the museum took delivery of an amazing new addition to the museum. And, there has been some stuff going on there that is exciting. But, I’m not going to bore my readers with that stuff. A lot has gone down over the past couple of years, some of which is not all that great, but it is what it is, and I’m working through the challenges. This posting is to say I’m still around, and have been preoccupied by a lot of other stuff in my life that has consumed the vast majority of my time. I’ve also not posted much on the Old Calculator Museum website, which may further add to such speculation.
With as long as it has been since I’ve posted here, many might think that I’ve fallen off the face of the earth.