On Wed, 2003-10-29 at 17:25, William Maddox wrote:
> I just joined the list. I've had a long-time
> interest in old computers, and rescued a "straight-8"
> many years ago when I didn't think anyone else
> thought of it as anything more than junk. It was at
> least minimally operable when I obtained it, but I
> went off to graduate school before I could find any
> software for it, and it's been in storage at my
> father's office in Florida for ~15 years now. I hope
> to move it to my current location in the next few
> months after a family visit, but in the meantime,
> I'm looking to acquire another minicomputer from
> the core memory era, hopefully something slightly
> more compactly packaged than the (presently rackless)
> rack-mount "8".
First, welcome to the list!
Second, drool...a straight-8! Lucky guy!!
>
> After some research, I have settled on the HP21xx
> line as a good candidate. These seem to be very nice,
> well-built machines with a reasonable architecture,
> a good paper-tape BASIC, and a full complement of
> "blinkenlights". It seems that these machines are
> actually still used, however, and I've been quoted
> some pretty steep prices from a nearby dealer in
> in used HP gear.
PDP-8's are still in use too (my 8/e came from a company that had just
started to phase them out of their production line).
HP's are pretty robust machines. I'm mainly a DEC collector but
recently acquired an HP-2116C. The difference between the DEC & the HPs
of that era is night and day (think Chevy vs Cadillac). The HPs are
*built*.
>
> I'd be interested in comments and advice for a
> prospective 21xx owner from those on the list who own
> these machines or have used them. I'm particularly
> concerned about reliability, since at the price I
> expect to pay, I want to keep it operating for a long
> time to come. How difficult and expensive are they to
>
> troubleshoot and keep working (say, compared to DEC
> PDP-8)? How available are contemporary replacements
> and/or new old stock for the ICs? Are there any
> proprietary components that are particularly prone to
> failure or hard to replace that I absolutely must
> obtain up-front as spares? What about the core stacks
> themselves? The dealer that I talked to seemed to
> think these were problematic (though I did not speak
> with his technicians), while my instinct would be that
> the core itself (not the driver electronics) would be
> among the most reliable and stable components, barring
> visible corrosion damage.
The HPs use CML (Current-Mode-Logic) which is a little bit strange but
there are replacement boards available (from dealers and others).
>
> Also, any suggestions on places to look for these
> machines on the cheap would be welcomed. What I'm
> most looking for is a 2115, but would likely be
> interested in the somewhat later 2100 as well.
There are two 2116Bs on e-bay at the moment. So they are starting to
show up some. The 2116 has the advantage over say the 2115 in that you
can put 16K in the base cabinet (the C can have 32K).
--
TTFN - Guy
Received on Thu Oct 30 2003 - 01:37:42 GMT