The Datamatic Division of Honeywell announced the H-800 electronic computer in 1958. The first installation occurred in 1960. A total of 89 were delivered. The H-800 design was part of a family of 48-bit word, three-address instruction format computers that descended from the Datamatic 1000, which was a joint Honeywell and Raytheon project started in 1955. The 1800 and 1800-II were follow-on designs to the H-800.[1]
The basic unit of data was a word of 48 bits. This could be divided in several ways:
The Honeywell 800 was a transistorized computer with core memory. Its processor used around 6000 discrete transistors and around 30,000 solid-state diodes.[2] The basic system had:
Extra peripherals could be added running through additional controllers with a theoretical possibility of 56 tape units.[3]
Up to 12 more main memory banks could be added.[3]
A random access disc system with a capacity of 800 million alphanumeric characters could be added.[3]
Multiprogram control allowed up to 8 programs to be sharing the machine, each with its own set of 32 special registers.[3]
A Floating-Point Unit was optionally available. The 48 bit word allowed a seven bit exponent and 40 bit mantissa. So numbers between 10−78 and 10+76 were possible and precision was 12 decimal places.[3] If the customer did not buy the floating point unit, then floating point commands were implemented by software simulation.
Peripheral devices included: high-density magnetic tapes, high-speed line printers, fast card and paper tape readers and punches to high-capacity random access magnetic disc memories, optical scanners, self-correcting orthoscanners and data communications devices.[3]
Available software included: