One of the very first large systems I worked on had a couple of wire warp boards, The boards had edge connectors.

On the top side of the board were rows of chip sockets. I am guessing sockets were 10 x10. Each socket (again from memory ) was 16 pin DIP. Next to the sockets was a row of wire wrap pins. Of course chips mainly when in the sockets but they also had carriers for any needed caps and resistors. The board was pretty much all digital.


I don't recall if they built the whole thing up from a perf board and solder all the pins and sockets in place or they purchased it as such.

Does anyone else recall such a thing existing? Does it still exist?

Wire wrap had its issue but wow when it cam to troubleshooting it sure came in useful. It was pretty easy to just be able to isolate a circuit by unwrapping it.

 

I assume that is 'wirewrap'?
Something like this?
Max.

 

I assume that is 'wirewrap'?
Something like this?
Max.

Yeah but the wire wrap pins were on the same side of the board as the sockets.
I am condused by your statement. Makes it sound like you have not used wirewrap? I have even seen it on conventional PCBs for things like configuration jumpers.

 

Wire Wrap seems to have fallen off the radar as a prototyping technology.

I still utilize WW to great effect for building prototypes, hybrid with SMD adapter boards for IC's.

 

Yeah but the wire wrap pins were on the same side of the board as the sockets.
I am condused by your statement. Makes it sound like you have not used wirewrap? I have even seen it on conventional PCBs for things like configuration jumpers.

I have used it quite extensively in the early '80's!
Still keep a spool of wire wrap wire as small jumpers etc.
Max.

 

Used something similar to this on disk-drive formatter/testers

We would give them to a lady who was visibly high and always wore a set of huge headphones.
She would go away for a few days and bring them back wired to the schematic.

 

Yiur photo is way too small but it looks like to me just wire wrap sockets in a perf board. Similar to what Max posted.

 

Like Max during the early 80s I did quite a bit with wire wrap boards. This was before we could just email a Gerber file and 3 or 4 days later have a complete complex board turn up on the door step. You could buy blank boards with edge card connectors exactly as you describe along with chip carriers and component carriers. Somewhere around here I have a box with a bunch of wire wrap tools and some wire. The boards actually worked well for our applications and it wasn't unusual to have ten boards in a 19" rack mount panel. As of 5 or 6 years ago when I retired most of the systems using those old boards have been replaced but we even had the techs make spare boards so when a board failed it was an easy replace and keep going fixing or repairing the board later.

Ron