[Editor's note:
The document that follows was written around 50 years ago. I have
transcribed into HTML to the best of my ability. I have attempted to
recapture the original style of the document. In order to do this I have
used the only technique then available for highlighting and emphasis:
underlining and quoting. This may cause some confusion with hypertext
links, but I felt that from the point of view of historical authenticity it
was worth it. I have made use of hypertext links to make the document easy
to navigate.
There are a few minor blemishes - I have been unable to reproduce some of the special symbols that were available on the typewriters of the day, but hope that with improvements to HTML, I’ll be able to sort these out eventually.
I have been unable to reproduce aome of the underlining across tabular matter. It seems that HTML does not allow such quirky constructs!
There are a couple of "typos" in the original document which I have preserved - they are fairly obvious. I cannot, however, guarantee that I have not introduced a few typos of my own in the transcription process. I take full responsibility for any such errors, and will be happy to correct them if you let me know.
I have added a few "editors notes" in the form [ed: note note note] in places where the text caused me grief when I first was trying to learn this. I hope that these are not too intrusive and do not offend purists.
The information contianed in this guide is issued for instructional purposes only, and does not constitute a specification of the equipment described. The main part of the text is written with reference to the basic 803 computer, while an appendix describes the Automatic Floating-point Unit.