rarest computers. was: RE: Xerox Alto Restoration + Emulation

From: Tony Duell <ard_at_p850ug1.demon.co.uk>
Date: Tue Aug 3 17:48:42 2004

>
> On Mon, 2004-08-02 at 22:43, Tony Duell wrote:
> > > Acorn System 5 (maybe 20 or so left worldwide?)
> >
> > I have one.
>
> Yes, but you have one of everything :-)

No I don't...

I fact let's start a thread of what items people feel are missing from
their collections, Here's mine... (No, I am not asking for any of these...)

HP9100A (Yes, OK, I have a pair of -Bs, but I'd like to pull the older
version apart too)

HP9820 (just for completeness, I have the 9810 and 9830)

PDP10 (any model)

PDP12 (I have the full set of manuals)

PDP11/74 (Yes, I know, not a chance of ever finding one)

Apple Lisa (I'd like to see how much worse it was than the classic PERQ)

And some micros that are supposed to be quite common but I've not
bothered with.

Acorn Electron
Sinclair ZX80
Apple ///
Apple //c
Dragon 64 (I have the CoCo family)
TRS80 Model 2/12/16

And a lot more.

>
> Actually, IME ex-employees from the various hardware companies often
> seem to have stuff hidden away in storage from their days with the

That's how I got the P851 and P854. The owner was actually quite
supprised that anyone wanted them (but was clueful enough to realise I'd
also want the boot disks, user and service manuals, etc, and had them all
ready for me when I went to pick up the machines)

> > > Torch Quad X (I don't know of any others left)
> >
> > I have one of those as well, missing a few trivial bits like the PSU
> > output cable. I do haev the mainboard, PSU, drives, etc.
>
> Any install media? That's one thing I don't have, so the machine's

Not that I am aware of. I think I do have a bootable hard disk, though.

> > > Torch Triple X workstation (maybe 30 of those around?)
> >
> > I have a few, including one with a Quinring (5 slot VME expansion slice)
> > on top.
>
> The quinring's aren't common. The Torch Primagraphics workstation has

I have at least one, and a couple of slimrings (adds one VME slot).

> one, plus I think I have one spare which isn't attached to a machine. If
> you ever need keyboards or mice, shout - I have around 15 of the
> critters :-)

I think i have more machines than keyboards, but it's not like I need to
set them all up at once.

-tony
Received on Tue Aug 03 2004 - 17:48:42 BST