Old ICL mainframe keyboard

From: Andy Holt <andyh_at_andyh-rayleigh.freeserve.co.uk>
Date: Tue Nov 26 13:33:00 2002

> When I first started work as an Op for the local council they'd
> just phased
> out their old mainframe (I was sure it was a 2900 but could've
> been a 1900)
> and upgraded to a dual node 2966. The old console had one of
> these keyboards
> so that matches.

All models of the 1900 series had (slightly modified) KSR33 Teletypes for
operators console* as supplied.
The interface was such that it was relatively easy to install a faster
serial ASCII device. As we did our own maintenance we were able to do this
(using, at different times, a 30cps printing terminal then a 120cps VDU+ a
printer) and I suspect that sites that were on friendly terms with their
support would also be able to do this even tho' it was not a "standard"
offering. The 10cps console was a serious bottleneck on large non-George3
sites.
I'm not sure what console a 2903 had (the 2903 was a 32-bit processor
microcoded to emulate the 24 bit 1900 series).
* The 1901 and the 1901A had a switches & lights console as standard with
the TTY as an option (strongly recommended!).

Most information in this posting comes from the second (final) edition of
the "Central Processors" manual as updated to 2/2/77 (manual number 4412)
... the source of the rest of the info should be obvious :-)

Andy
Received on Tue Nov 26 2002 - 13:33:00 GMT