Later, in 1969, I used the HP9100A desktop calculator. This was a 30kg HP35 with 196 steps of memory, a CRT which showed either 3 steps of the program, or the three rpn registers. It was the successor to the Programma, and was replaced by a series of desk calculators with more memory, LED displays, the ability to control analog plotters, and ultimately BASIC programming.
But the value of the early calculators like the Programma was in teaching efficient algorithm design with limited memory. While this was completely obviated in scientific programming by the late 70’s, I’m sure it served as a first introduction to software engineers writing in assembly language.
Using a transducer a series of acoustic pulses (bits) are inserted into one end of the wire. The pulse travels along the wire at the sound speed and reach the other end where the signal is "read"
2000 bits with 6.5m of wire. You could make a 128GB flash card equivalent with only 416,000 km of wire (a bit over the distance from the Earth to the Moon)
