I'm sure that cartoonist was watching me and my wife. :) I'm still learning how to answer her questions properly (see another reply "Magic"). :sigh:

They were made by Univac, converted from some commercial mainframe they had at the time. They were 15 data bits plus one parity bit. We had 64 Kwords of magnetic core memory in 4 blocks. No keyboard or display, although we connected it to an IBM selectric typewriter that was modified with interface electronics. At least we had magnetic tape, not paper tape like some of the other computers on the boat.:cool:

Started as an Electronics Technician on a submarine in the early 70's. Worked on 15 bit word computers, where the only programming was pressing buttons on the control panel (set only, another button to clear the word) to set the instructions in individual memory spaces. Did that to manipulate memory, registers and the CPU for troubleshooting. BS Math in the 80's, MS CS early 90's. Only programming language course I took was Fortran as a requirement for the math degree. When I was teaching CS, the fundamentals were Data Structures and Algorithms, languages were learned on the side. Now I'm not sure what is taught, but I think my hardware background helped me understand how and why computers worked so I could concentrate on programming to make them do what I want.

Floating in the pool, looking at stars, while listening to 60's and 70's rock music. Science fiction; reading or watching.