More IBM-tans III: The One With Actually More IBM-tans

[Bella]

Astrotype-tan: AKA ICS Astrotype, AKA Astrocomp AKA Astrocomp 8
-A successful example of IBM/DEC cooperation, her parents are Selectric-kun and PDP-8. (ICS used Selectric terminals with a PDP-8/L and DECTape drives)

Took me nearly five years to register that PDP-8-tan and Selectric-kun have a kid together. What, why and how?

[stewartsage]

Took me nearly five years to register that PDP-8-tan and Selectric-kun have a kid together. What, why and how?

Seriously?  I've brought it up since even!  Corporate synergy to all three.

[Bella]

Seriously?  I've brought it up since even!  Corporate synergy to all three.

Is that what we're calling it now? 🤔🤨

[stewartsage]

Is that what we're calling it now? 🤔🤨

Well, PDP-8 has a lot of kids already with the various OSes, I can easily see her teaming up with Selectric, who's a pretty affable guy to bring a joint DEC/IBM into the world for no other reason then it would be fun!

[Bella]

Well, PDP-8 has a lot of kids already with the various OSes, I can easily see her teaming up with Selectric, who's a pretty affable guy to bring a joint DEC/IBM into the world for no other reason then it would be fun!

Obsessed with PDP-8-tan and Selectric-kun overcoming a decade of DEC-IBM enmity through the power of "it would be fun". But where is LINC-tan in all this? :O

[Bella]

Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC)-tan

General facts:
- Philadelphian-turned-Marylander
    - Created at the Moore School, transported to Aberdeen Proving Ground.
- Automaton
    - Dual allusion to the simple, modular nature of ENIAC and a hint at something transcendental or supernatural about ENIAC-tan.
- Physically constrained by her construction but doesn't view it as a limitation.
    - Programmers cleverly overcame hardware limitations and used idiosyncrasies to their advantage.
- Can control different parts even if they're not articulated together. Limbs can be swapped out.
    - Modules operated independently before being linked.
- Initially animated by coordinated manipulation of her wires.
    - Early programming required manual timekeeping and rewiring.
- Poor memory in her youth. Improved later on.
    - Not stored program, originally.
- Loves her fathers & uncles, but largely socializes with and prefers the company of women otherwise.
    - Women primarily programmed & operated ENIAC.
- Lived an anchorite-like existence in her youth, walled into her "hermitage", interacted indirectly with all but her creators.
    - Security/secrecy prevented early programmers from interacting with the computer.
- Eventually debuted, but maintains a "walled garden" philosophy toward computers.
    - Proprietary approach toward ENIAC and derivatives.
- Expert marksman.
    - Used for ordnance & ballistics.
- Helped develop the hydrogen bomb, unclear whether she did so knowingly.
    - Secretly used for H-bomb calculations.
- Badly injured en route her new home.
    - Damaged in transport.
- An overhaul increased her mobility and independence at the cost of her sheer power.
    - Conversion code process made the ENIAC easier to program at the cost of speed.

Relationships:
- Daughter/heir EDVAC-tan, who has several half-sisters: EDSAC, Manchester Baby/Mark I, and IAS-tan.
    - EDVAC made by original ENIAC team. EDSAC, Manchester & IAS all derived from the "First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC", sent to different organizations before completion.
- Contemptuous toward IAS-tan, whom she blames both for personal betrayal and profaning computer-kind by releasing them to the wider world.
    - Conflict surrounding ENIAC patent rights and attribution of invention of the stored program computer.
- Socialized with more computers after she moved.
- Matriarch of the Univac clan.
    - Same creative team.

Appearance & personality:
- Doll-like body, exposed sockets & wires, taller than average, medium-olive skintone, black hair styled into curls/rolls, amber-red eyes.
- Full length black dress reminiscent of a nun's habit or puritan's robes, many panels fastened with glass buttons allow her servants to maintain and swap out parts.
- Veiled wide brimmed hat generally covering her face.
- Accessories: pocket-belt, various counting beads, abacii and other calculation devices, artillery charts rolled up and carried on her back.
- Prim and proper, regal bearing that comes off as intimidating whether or not she's trying to, has a bit of a well-founded superiority complex as a computer. Gracious and patient with her caretakers. Became more relaxed and sociable with time. Trust issues, does not forget or forgive offenses.
- Philosophical about the nature and duty of computers, ruminates frequently on her own purpose and place in the cosmos and that of others.

Status:
- Died to a lightening strike in 1955.
- Rumors abound that her spirit stalks the earth.
    - There are a *lot* of ENIAC emulators.
- Elaborate mythology (or is it?) about her haunting the many-times-great-grandchildren of her betrayer. 

[stewartsage]

Obsessed with PDP-8-tan and Selectric-kun overcoming a decade of DEC-IBM enmity through the power of "it would be fun". But where is LINC-tan in all this? :O

Every hotel has the LINC-tan chair.

Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC)-tan

It's weird that we've never really had a fully developed ENIAC-tan!  I like your vision for her.  Understandable why, if she isn't fond of the spread of computers from her own existence as the proverbially Tree of Knowledge, she remains hidden today from OS-tan kind.

[Bella]

Every hotel has the LINC-tan chair.

You managed to verbalize what was stuck in my head almost word for word, lol.

It's weird that we've never really had a fully developed ENIAC-tan!  I like your vision for her.  Understandable why, if she isn't fond of the spread of computers from her own existence as the proverbially Tree of Knowledge, she remains hidden today from OS-tan kind.

Thanks! This is high praise coming from someone who -tanned so many old computers.

Glad you drew the tree of knowledge parallel. That, and other mythological tales of mortals gaining knowledge they shouldn't, or stealing from the gods certainly comes to mind with the ENIAC - IAS conflict ... weirdly I think that makes EDVAC-tan the forbidden fruit in this scenario.