Free Thinking Machines CM-5

From: William Donzelli <aw288_at_osfn.org>
Date: Sun Jul 1 23:42:54 2001

> What a shame.

This rack was never a real machine, as far as I can tell. It does not have
a tag or serial number on it, and since the movie was being filmed pretty
much after Thinking Machines sank, it was probably just an extra rack. The
blinkenlights panels (yes, they really blink, in one of seven ways) were
mounted in a rather non-standard way, complete with black construction
paper for light shields. The rack has a power supply for the eight panels,
but never had anything else installed (backplanes, more supplies, cables,
etc.).

So it is really not a shame. In fact, its rebirth as 10,000 Cambell's
soup cans will be fairly painless, as four of the panels will be used to
populate the network cabinet of a real CM-5.
 
Did you ever work on CM-5s? The damn things have the most complex set of
skins ever devised (purely form over function), and frankly, I am stuck.

William Donzelli
aw288_at_osfn.org
Received on Sun Jul 01 2001 - 23:42:54 BST