This is the center console of the 737's computer system.
Like the 727 simulator, it's a Honeywell DDP-124 with 64K words of 36 bit
RAM. This is the alternate configuration. This is what a programer
would use to manipulate
the computer with if no terminal was available.
This is where the computer is intially started from and the boot
sequence is toggled in to get the bootstrap loader into
the computer in preparation for loading the simulator software.
The pink (red) tape is a mylar punched tape that has
the initial bootloader code on it. All it does is tell the
DDP-124 to switch input ports and perform a tape load
from the virtual tape reader that's connected to the
Compaq Deskpro. The green loop that's hanging from
the left tape capstan is used for doing systems diagnostic
work.
Here is a close-up image of the hand-wired tape interface.
If you even so much as give this thing a harsh
look it goes offline. You then get to spend the
next three hours tracing connections to find the loose one.
This board was originally only supposed to be a prototype
in preparation for building a single PCB.
Unfortunately, for whatever reason, this "prototype"
has been in active use for nearly 10 years.
