Jupiter Computer (No Not the ACE)

From: peter tremewen <ptremewe_at_bigpond.net.au>
Date: Sun Jun 1 16:19:00 2003

Hi all,

        I have in my hands a "Jupiter" computer and am wondering if you can
offer any info on it? It is not the Jupiter ACE home computer, but a much
earlier very large and obviously fairly old rack mounted system. The computer
is based on the 68010 CPU. I can't determine how much memory it has on board,
but there are more than several banks of 4164 mem chips which if I remember is
a 64kbit dynamic Ram device. The huge keyboard is attached via a missing
multipair cable and has two joysticks on either side. The monitor has separate
RGB and Sync cables, each of which are generated using separate discrete
component boards in the chassis. Inside the chassis are two huge Vertex hard
drives, and a 3.5 in floppy, each connected to their discrete driver boards,
Z80 based.

        On the front of the computer is "Jupiter". Model number is J12CHAS and
Man date is "514". It was manufactured in Berkeley C.A. USA. The serial number
is "Jup.S.N. 12C-1025-AA". I basically found it all on a curbside and couldn't
resist adding it too my rather small but now growing collection. If you need
any further info to help with identification let me know, I'll see what I more
I can get from the chassis.

        Maybe I'm insane and have just picked up what most would consider
total junk, but I personally think that systems such as this are worth
preserving. I haven't been brave enough to switch the damn thing on yet, with
all that discrete hardware it will probably double my power bill with about a
minutes use. However I love all this old stuff, and worse comes to worse at
least their are some interesting discrete components in it. If you need or
would like a photo let me know, I'm a freelance photographer and will take a
few shots anyway, so when I do I'll pass some scans on to you.

                Peter T.
Received on Sun Jun 01 2003 - 16:19:00 BST