Ali Babas cave

From: Huw Davies <H.Davies_at_latrobe.edu.au>
Date: Thu May 14 02:31:00 1998

At 12:58 AM 14-05-98 -0400, William Donzelli wrote:

>> That is good news (for us). Do you have contact details for anyone who
>> has one?
>
>The DEC Australia collection probably has one (but they have damn near one
>of EVERYTHING DEC made!).

If this is discussing a PDP-9 then yes, there is at least one in the
collection - the first Digital box purchased by La Trobe in about 1967.
There's an interesting story behind this system:

In about 1968 the -9 was stored in a basement area which was unfortunately
flooded when some high-pressure water pipes ruptured. My current boss (who
was Computer Centre Manager at the time) along with the technical officer
moved the -9 out onto a lawn and it was disassembled. The parts were then
washed and dried in front of radial heaters (one of which is still in use
in my bosses office!). The -9 was reassembled but three flip chip modules
were found spare! The system ran (without them) for about 10 years before
being replaced with a PDP-15, DECsystem-10 and Vaxes of various types. It
was decommissioned and moved to the DEA museum collection.

 Huw Davies | e-mail: Huw.Davies_at_latrobe.edu.au
 Information Technology Services | Phone: +61 3 9479 1550 Fax: +61 3 9479
1999
 La Trobe University | "If God had wanted soccer played in the
 Melbourne Australia 3083 | air, the sky would be painted green"
Received on Thu May 14 1998 - 02:31:00 BST