On Sun, 2004-03-28 at 22:02, Marvin Johnston wrote:
> At the TRW swap meet yesterday, I ran across this box:
> http://www.rain.org/~marvin/box.jpg. The reason I bought it was that the
> overlays had some words that rang of old mainframe computers. There are
> three double sided overlays to define what the LEDs mean with
> designations such as "Print Scan Counter", "Print Character Generator",
> etc. Another overlay has the heading "2314/2841 TROS SAL BITS". There
> are two rectangular connectors with cables to connect to whatever this
> thing is doing something with:). The only label on the box says
> "Infinite Computer". Anyone have any idea what this thing is and is used
> for?
The 2314 is an IBM disk drive (28MB) which has an integrated controller
(the CHM has one next to their 360/30). The 2841 is a standalone
controller for the 2311 drives (7MB) and other DASD units.
TROS (Transformer Read Only Storage) is the microcode storage used in
these units, so what you have is a (presumably multipurpose) Field
Engineering unit. See
http://www.punch-card.co.uk/storage.htm
The other overlays are almost certainly for a line printer.
The 2841 had a small internal diagnostic panel, but presumably not
enough lights to display the entire microcode word.
I'm not sure when the 2314 was introduced, maybe 1966/7 or so.
LJW
--
Lawrence Wilkinson lawrence_at_ljw.me.uk
Ph +44(0)1869-811059 http://www.ljw.me.uk
Received on Mon Mar 29 2004 - 13:39:28 BST
