
Honeywell knew that the same technology that enabled the production of RAM spelled the end of DTL computers, and wanted to show that the company was cutting edge. It was never placed into production, as DTL was too power-hungry to survive much longer. In 1972, a Honeywell 316 was displayed with a semiconductor RAM memory board (they used core memory previously). The Honeywell 316 has the distinction of being the first computer displayed at a computer show with semiconductor RAM memory. Honeywell advertised the system as the first minicomputer selling for less than $10,000. The Honeywell family of peripherals included card readers and punches, line printers, magnetic tape, and both fixed-head and removable hard disk drives.Ī rack-mounted configuration weighed around 120 pounds (54 kg) and used 475 watts of power. Smaller systems typically used a high-speed paper-tape reader and punch for data storage. A Teletype Model 33 ASR teleprinter could be used as a console I/O device and (in the most basic systems) to load and store data to paper tape. In addition to a front-panel display of lights and toggle switches, the system supported different types of input/output devices. The basic processor had a single interrupt signal line, and an option provided up to 48 interrupts. A 10-bit I/O control bus, consisting of 6 bits of device address information and 4 bits of function selection, was used. Input/output instructions used the A register and separate input and output 16-bit buses. The instruction set had 72 arithmetic, logic, I/O and flow-control instructions. A 16-bit X index register was also provided for modification of the address of operands.A carry flag indicated arithmetic overflow.The 16-bit program counter holds the address of the next instruction.The 16-bit B register was used for double-length arithmetic operations.The 16-bit A register was the primary arithmetic and logic accumulator.The programmers' model of the H-316 consisted of the following registers:
Honeywell plc 16 software#
It also provided a normalization operation, assisting implementation of software floating-point operations. An optional hardware arithmetic option was available to implement integer multiply and divide, double-precision load and store, and double-precision (31-bit) integer addition and subtraction operations.

Memory cycle time was 1.6 microseconds an integer register-to-register "add" instruction took 3.2 microseconds. Initially released with a capacity of 4096 through 16,384 words of memory, later expansion options allowed increasing memory space to 32,768 words. The instruction set was a single-address type with an index register. The computer was a bitwise-parallel 2's complement system with 16-bit word length. Most parts of the system operated at 2.5 MHz, and some elements were clocked at 5 MHz. The computer processor was made from small-scale integration DTL monolithic silicon integrated circuits.

The 316 succeeded the earlier DDP-516 model and was promoted by Honeywell as suitable for industrial process control, data-acquisition systems, and as a communications concentrator and processor. Two PDP-11/70s, which had previously been secondary monitors, were moved to primary. A 316 was used at Bradwell nuclear power station in Essex as the primary reactor temperature-monitoring computer until summer 2000, when the internal 160k disk failed. The Honeywell 316 also had industrial applications. The original Prime computers were designed to be compatible with the Series-16 minicomputers. It could also be configured as a Terminal IMP (TIP), which added support for up to 63 teletype machines through a multi-line controller. The Honeywell 516 was used in the NPL network, and the 516 and later the 316 were used as Interface Message Processors (IMP) for the ARPANET.

Moore to develop the first complete, stand-alone implementation of Forth at NRAO.
Honeywell plc 16 series#
Honeywell bought the company after the 24 trio, and built the balance of the Series 16. Computer Control Company developed a computer series named Digital Data Processor, of which it built two models:
