an interesting round-up

From: Marvin <marvin_at_rain.org>
Date: Sun Sep 28 12:19:08 1997

Sam Ismail wrote:

> Ok, here's some of what I arrested into the custody of my collection
> yesterday.
>
> A zero-emission Mac 512K. This is truly bizarre. Its a normal looking
> Mac
> 512K until you look closer and notice there is a second built-in floppy
> on the right-hand side, oriented vertically. The brightness knob is
> missing from the front and replaced with a little square that is the same
> color and texture as the rest of the case. It was moved to the back.
> The power cord is not detachable like on a normal Mac but is instead
> permanently attached. The external disk drive connector is gone, and so
> is the slot where you can insert a security cable; its covered over.
> Opening this thing is half-past a bitch and a quarter till a pain in the
> ass. I finally get it open by removing all the screws on the DB-9
> connectors on the back and find a totally shielded interior. The disk
> drives and motherboard are encased in aluminum. The monitor has a gold
> foil pasted to its entire exterior. The video cable is shielded inside a
> heavy duty stranded shielding, as well as the cable going to the second
> disk drive. Even the DB-9 connectors have extra shielding around them.
> It was made by a company called Systematics General in Sterling,
> Virginia. Anyone know anything about these?

It sounds like a tempest computer. While someone else on the listserver
probably has more to say, as I recall they were designed to be able to run
classified material with zero emmisions so the information couldn't be
tapped from outside the machine. Nice find!
Received on Sun Sep 28 1997 - 12:19:08 BST