How scarce (valuable) is core for the PDP-8?

From: Ethan Dicks <ethan_dicks_at_yahoo.com>
Date: Mon Apr 19 06:58:34 1999

I have a chance to buy a 4kW core stack for the PDP-8/i (-8/L). It's
more than I want to pay, $100. My question is, what are these things
going for these days? I don't really *need* it. The guy selling it
has more core than this that he saved from a "recycler", but he's in
it for the money, not out of a love for classic machines. Most of his
memory, he sells to people who want something to stick on the shelf and
"ooh" and "aah" at. :-(

So... for those people who have been trying to get core over the past year
or two, what's it costing? I'm trying to decide if I want to grab this
stack to put into my -8/i and bring it up to 8kW, an entirely optional
project (I have all the other parts I would need for the upgrade from a
PDP-8/L that I got in 1982 that was sold as parts-only, bad core, and most
of the I/O and part of the CPU missing).

I think he's charging too much, but maybe I'm disconnected with the
current pricing. I do know that if I pass on it, there are several
other people who are waiting for this exact piece, so it'll be sold
one way or the other when I answer him.

OTOH, I do have a broken (20-30 fractured cores) -8/L stack that I've
contemplated repairing. It's a parity stack, so I can scavenge wire
and cores from the parity plane (or just use the parity plane intact
as another bit, then use one pad of broken core to repair the other,
less damaged pad of broken core). Any thoughts out there on core repair?
It's 1968 DEC core with, AFAIK a seperate sense and inhibit wire, which
is both good and bad - good because the cores are larger than three-wire
core, bad because I'd have to thread up, down and two diagonals.

Of course, I could always sell the broken plane to a collector and use
the money to fund part of this working stack. So many options. In terms
of time spent, it's cheaper for me to work a few hours and earn the money
that the core pirate wants; in terms of lessons learned, repairing a 30-year-
old core stack would be a big thrill, *if* it worked.

Thanks,

-ethan


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Received on Mon Apr 19 1999 - 06:58:34 BST

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