Date: Wed, 26 Nov 2003 18:28:30 -0500
Subject: Re: One That Got Away (was: Woohoo! Another DEC score!)
>>...There. That's my True Confession(tm).
I've got a couple of those... a Connection Machine CM-200, and a pdp-12 :-(
The CM-200: In the early 1990s, I was in Edinburgh, trying to track down
some pdps. I ended up at the Edinburgh Parallel Computing Centre (EPCC),
where I found a pdp-11/45, just decommisioned, which had been running as a
communications front end. I also found the most impressive computer I had
(and have) ever seen: a Connection Machine CM-200, flashing all its lights
at me in a very beguiling fashion! I determined there and then that I would
try, in a few years when such machines were being retired, to secure one for
the Corestore.
I let around five years go by, not realising just how long a period that is
in high-performance computing, before I spoke to the people in Edinburgh
again: 'oh I'm sorry, we finished with that machine six months ago - it was
carted off for scrap. We kept a few of the boards as souvenirs...'!!!
The pdp-12: In 1993 I collected a pdp-12 from a medical research place. At
the time I removed it, there were still two other pdp-12s on site there, one
complete and in use, the other dismantled for spares. One machine remained
in intermittant use until at least 2001! I had been promised the remaining
equipment when it was finally surplus to requirements, and telephoned the
place every few months, always getting the reply ' it will be a few more
months at least'... then came the fatefull day in early 2002 when I called
and heard 'oh sorry we forgot about you - we got rid of it all a couple of
months ago, it all went to an old computer enthusiast who asked us for it!'
Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
At least the -12 *did* get saved...
Mike
http://www.corestore.org
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Received on Thu Nov 27 2003 - 16:44:31 GMT