>
> On Fri, 21 Mar 1997 17:54:15 -0500, "Captain Napalm" uttered:
>
> > but you might want to add an availability field [for (in the good
> Captain's case, microcomputers)], something like:
>
> > Limited - only a single run ever made, and then, not very
> > many.
>
> How about some of the rarer minicomputers that were made in the '60s?
> Beasts like the LINC-8 (of which there were only 142 built) or Packard
> Bell equipment from the very early sixties count here. PDP-1.
What about machines built at prototypes only (PERQ 2T4, PERQ3A, Tiger?
Tandy Deluxe Coco, etc). Some of those are very difficult to find.
> > Common - Fairly easy to find.
>
> DEC pdp11 gear fits, for the most part here, although a case can be
Processors, maybe, but some of the peripherals are a lot rarer. How many
people have heard of the DX11-B (IBM 360 or 370 channel interface for the
PDP11), let alone seen one or the schematics to it?
[...]
>
> I hate to flog a horse that's weak, but there is more to computing
> life than microprocessors. Whilst I don't disagree that the micro-
> based machines should be preserved (they should), I hope that folks,
Absolutely. It never fails to amaze me that some 1980's home micros
(particularly Sinclar ZX80's, ZX81's, etc and Commodore 64's) still fetch
quite high prices second-hand, while I am often _given_ minicomputer
equipment.
If you have the space to run one (and it's not that much, actually), then
a minicomputer is a very nice thing to have in a collection. You can learn
a lot about the operation of a digital computer by taking one of the
simpler minicomputers (I would not recomend starting with a PDP11/45, even
though I did!) and figuring out exactly how it works. You can watch the
control signals using almost any 'scope, particularly if you slow down the
clock a bit.
> through their study of machines' history, become aware of what is
> now _distant_ history, even though it only happened 25-35 years ago.
> Bitmapped displays and typewriter keyboards are nice, but it's also
The PERQ (sorry to keep on mentioning what I consider to be one of the
finest machines ever made) has a minicomputer-like CPU (260+ chips, 74S181
ALUs, 2910 sequencer, etc) that you can get amongst together with a hi-res
bitmapped display.
> | Carl Richard Friend (UNIX Sysadmin) | West Boylston |
--
-tony
ard12_at_eng.cam.ac.uk
The gates in my computer are AND,OR and NOT, not Bill
Received on Sun Mar 23 1997 - 10:15:04 GMT