Identification request - QuadexQ5000/SMS/Compugraphics/DEC ??? should I save it?

From: Jason McBrien <jbmcb_at_hotmail.com>
Date: Mon May 22 10:50:32 2000

I snagged a few of these from a design firm that was tossing them. They are
dedicated page layout minis. Quadex was bought by CompuGraphic, which was in
turn bought, I think, by 3M. Thats why there are Quadex and CompuGraphic
parts on the same system. The Quadex was the most popular page layout setup
in the late seventies to early eighties. The CPU box alone is pretty much
useless, they were designed to plug into a "Desktop" terminal controller,
about the size of a modern full size tower case laying sideways. The
terminal controller ran a more or less standard terminal with special page
layout keys (The keyboards are big metal jobbers) The controller also ran a
special preview monitor and control keypad for viewing pages as WYSIWIG as
you could get back then. I'm not sure what board had the disk controller,
but mine came with a 100MB 8" Winchester drive, a DC20-style tape drive, and
a pair of 8" disk drives. I got a portion of the disk set, each 8" disk
contains ONE font, in one face, in one style, in one point size.

I've seen the typesetter these things are designed to run, its a MONSTER.
about the size of the new beetle, you have to completly disassemble it to
get it through the door. The company I saw that was running it didn't even
bother loosing the typesetter, they just converted it into a nice conference
table.

I could not find ANY information on these things on the web. They were for a
niche market and were replaced ASAP with Macs. I'll poke around my
collection and see what else I can figure out.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jay West" <west_at_tseinc.com>
To: <classiccmp_at_classiccmp.org>
Sent: Sunday, May 21, 2000 12:34 PM
Subject: Identification request - QuadexQ5000/SMS/Compugraphics/DEC ???
should I save it?


> A friend called me about a cpu cabinet sitting next to a dumpster. I would
> like some background and identification on this system if anyone knows.
And
> most importantly - there's much more that I left behind - should I go get
it
> (as in anyone here want some of it)?
>
> At first blush I didn't think it would be interesting, but it looks like
an
> unibus system; it also had some M8043 and M8017 cards in it so it must be
> something DECish?
>
> Here's very sketchy details...
>
> Quadex Q5000 labeled rack and cpu enclosure
> Various tags inside the cabinet mention Quadex or Scientific Micro Systems
> or CompuGraphics
> A very deep rackmount unit with a QIC tape slot in the front
> A very deep rackmount unit with two 8" floppy drives - model A02028-501
"030
> Storage Module"
>
> The backplane looks DECish to me - similar to what I've seen in a 11/44.
> Here's some of the cards that are in it.
> Three M8017 - I know what these are :)
> One M8043 - I know what this is too :)
> Four boards #20033 - each has a tiny 4 pin connector and a tiny coax type
> connector (much smaller than 10b2). Main chip is N8X305N
> one #70201 which obviously went to external devices - two 50 pin headers
> which end in same connector 11/23 uses to go to external RD52's
> Sheild/bus terminator board - #203763
> What appears to be a memory board and has a 40 pin connector on it -
#75063
> One board has a ton of different size ribbon cables coming off it - label
> says "FWD0106"
> Plessey Peripheral Systems board with 50-pin berg connector #703755
> Small board #20041 with 14 pin berg coming off the side
> 2 card cpu set - #20038 and #20039, about 5 AM2901CPO chips, and a lot of
> N82S191N chips that say things like "instruction decoder"
>
> The SLU cards I can use in my 11/23's and 11/73's. I noticed that the back
> of the cpu cabinet someone had labelled the ports - some said terminal and
> some said "typesetter". Any idea what these cards are and if they're
usable
> in other dec systems? I left the QIC tape drive behind and they said there
> was more where that rack came from - anyone interested or is this junk?
> Trash pickup is on wednesday so let me know before then :)
>
> Jay West
>
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Received on Mon May 22 2000 - 10:50:32 BST