Data General Nova memory boards

From: Rob Lion <rnlion_at_its.caltech.edu>
Date: Thu Aug 2 02:03:32 2001

In the daily dumpster rounds today, I ran across a pair of large boards,
about 15" square, each labeled "DGC Nova2 16K memory, (c)1973 by Data
General Corp". They're designed to plug into a backplane with a pair of
cardedge connectors, 100 pins each. (This is, I'm sure, a well-known bus,
but not well-known to me. :-) )

The two boards are essentially identical, I think; the layout looks the same
but one has a layer of green enamel over the traces and the other leaves
them exposed. The center of the board is taken up by a slightly smaller
board, about 10"x12", labeled "DGC Nova 16K memory stack". An aluminum panel
unscrews to unfold from this board, revealing a large array of (I think)
core memory -- correct me if I'm wrong on this. Whatever it is, a huge
amount of incredibly tiny red and green wires woven together; quite
beautiful in its way. The traces on the PCBs are quite pretty as well,
artistically curving along their paths. Nothing at all like the autorouted
boards you see today.

Anyway, rambling aside, I don't really have any use for these boards. They
both have pricetags on them saying $9.95, but I have no idea from when or
where. So if anyone wants them for the price of shipping or wants to pick
them up from Pasadena, CA, just let me know; I'll keep them around for a few
weeks at least. Otherwise, maybe I'll (non-destructively) hang them on the
wall.

-Rob

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Received on Thu Aug 02 2001 - 02:03:32 BST