Looks to me like you would have to buy the 3.9 MWatt diesel powerplant
to run the IBM 4381 setup.
In fact, this whole place looks like it could be a great buy. You could
make it into a "Classic Computer Resort", and fly people in for vacations
or sabbaticals. (There must be an airfield that goes with it, too?
Maybe even a few C-5As?)
Maybe we could pool our resources and make a bid on the whole place?
Dave
Geoff Roberts wrote:
>
> Anyone able to tell me something about this type of system? It's about 300
> miles north of me, and I'm considering
> submitting a tender for it. Some idea of it's value, probably as scrap
> (since that's who I'd probably be bidding against)
> would be good. FWIW, I personally feel it is historically significant in
> view of the job it did and worthy of preservation.
>
> The system is from the (now closed) Joint US/Australian Space Defense
> facility at Nurrungar, near Woomera.
> ('Way out in the desert of northern South Australia.)
>
> The entire place is up for sale by tender, houses, buildings, radomes,
> dishes, power & AC plant etc - plus the
> IBM Mainframe that did all the data processing.
>
> Quote:
>
> "The Data Reduction Centre used the IBM 4381 Computer System to process and
> record infrared data detected by satellite and transmitted by the Satellite
> Tracking Station (SRS). The raw Satellite data was relayed through a variety
> of computers and electronic equipment and finally to the DRC's IBM 4381
> mainframe computers. The mainframe computers each had dual processors: a
> support processor and an instruction processor. The processors filtered out
> any spurious data by comparing the data against pre programmed event
> criteria. Data that were not needed were discardedwhile data that met
> certain criteria were formatted and sent to the SOC for further evaluation,
> this time by human beings."
>
> End quote.
>
> There are numerous pics of the the system at:-
> http://www.evansclarke.com.au/megatender/usaf_ibm_4381/index.htm
>
> If you click on one of the thumbnails it will show a large version of the
> pic with a next button to go through all of them.
>
> If you want to see the other stuff that's on offer take a look at :-
> http://www.evansclarke.com.au/megatender/index.html
>
> Cheers
>
> Geoff Roberts
> Computer Systems Manager
> Saint Mark's College
> Port Pirie, South Australia.
> Email: geoffrob_at_stmarks.pp.catholic.edu.au
> netcafe_at_pirie.mtx.net.au
> ICQ #: 1970476
Received on Mon Feb 21 2000 - 21:26:22 GMT