On Mon, Jan 26, 2004 at 02:37:14AM -0800, William Maddox wrote:
> Ethan: *Two* straight 8s *and* DF-32s? My envy knows no bounds... ;)
Bounds? Let me put it this way... PDP-8s are the focus of what I've been
collecting since 1982. I have yet to aquire a WT78, an -8/f or an -8/m.
That's all I'm missing (from the Straight-8s up to an SBC6120 w/front panel).
Also, one of the two Straight-8s is the same one depicted on the back of
"CPU Wars" by Charlie Andres (my boss sponsored the publication by buying
the back ad - there's a Straight-8 and an 11/04 in the picture).
I just wish I had some spare DF-32 platters. I'm sure mine are toast. I
got my first pair in high school and didn't know how thin the plating is.
I powered them up and down over 50 times fixing a problem. The -8/i that
I used for testing only had 4kW and 20 years ago, I had no access to
any software that talked to a disk besides OS/8. It's still a long-time
dream of mine to get a second core stack in it. I had an offer of a swap
with a list member, but he's never come to collect the CDC drive that I
picked up for him in exchange.
Mostly to show off my -8 collection (when I'm in North America ;-), I fire
up my first aquisition, a PDP-8/L to which I've added a PC8L. I load FOCAL
for them and show them Hammurabi. I had cow-orkers over for a barbeque once,
and had the distinct pleasure of loading a DECUS paper tape for the masses
that was documentably older than our boss.
-ethan
P.S. - I brought the SBC6120 with me to the Pole. It's sitting off to my
left. I plan to assemble my spare SBC6120 and two IOB6120s this winter.
--
Ethan Dicks, A-130-S Current South Pole Weather at 26-Jan-2004 10:51 Z
South Pole Station
PSC 468 Box 400 Temp -18.7 F (-28.2 C) Windchill -41.3 F (-40.7 C)
APO AP 96598 Wind 7.8 kts Grid 068 Barometer 688.1 mb (10321. ft)
Ethan.Dicks_at_amanda.spole.gov http://penguincentral.com/penguincentral.html
Received on Mon Jan 26 2004 - 05:10:16 GMT