CRT decay

From: Doug Yowza <yowza_at_yowza.com>
Date: Sun Nov 1 22:14:49 1998

On Mon, 2 Nov 1998, Tony Duell wrote:

> What's the machine? Just in case somebody knows for sure what the CRT is
> and how it was made.

It's an IMLAC PDS-1. It's perhaps the coolest computer on the planet, but
it needs a little work. I pulled it out of a garage on Saturday where it
had been sitting for a very long time underneath a dryer vent. The hot
moist air greatly accelerated the aging process of the display. The
computer itself is built into a desk, and the desktop shielded the guts
from the dryer vent, so the computer looks like it's in pretty good shape.

I'll try to get some pics up on the web, both for the purpose of showing
the damage and for bragging.

According to the previous owner, it was basically a PDP-1 clone (capable
of running SPACEWAR!). According to another source, it might be a PDP-8
clone:

<<
The Imlac was a minicomputer (what you'd call a workstation now) that
was sort of an expanded PDP-8 with a built in vector display processor. It
was programmed in assembly language. Imlac's big product was a
phototypsetting system, CES, which took advantage of the raster graphics
to offer a kind of WYSIWYG interface for the typesetting. This was before
laser printers.
>>

I got the machine from a venerable LISP hacker (same source as the 11/45
Sam mentioned). One of his housemates (the phrase "hippy commune"
wouldn't be completely accurate, but you get the picture) was one of the
original hackers at MIT. I asked him something about the PDP-1, and he
whipped out his PDP-1 manual to verify his answer! Somewhere, it was
marked PDP-8, and he explained that that wasn't the model number, it was
the serial number!

In any case, it'll be interesting bringing the PDS-1 up, and the most
obvious component that needs work is the display (and missing keyboard).

-- Doug
Received on Sun Nov 01 1998 - 22:14:49 GMT