Masscomp computers?

From: Joe R. <rigdonj_at_cfl.rr.com>
Date: Wed Nov 24 17:08:09 2004

At 01:33 PM 11/24/04 +0000, you wrote:
>On Wed, 2004-11-24 at 08:15 -0500, Joe R. wrote:
>> >Masscomp did indeed make multi-cpu machines,
>>
>> Yeap, each chassis can have up to four CPU cards. I think the dual
>> chasssis machines could have up to eight but I'd have to check on that.
>
>I'll have to pull the cover off our one sometime just to see what it has
>inside. Would be annoying to find it's just a shell (although it's heavy
>enough that there's concrete in there if not :)
>
>
>> >and also had an os called RTU (Real Time Unix).
>>
>> Yeap, I just sent that manual to Al K. I have at least three other
>> manuals here.
>
>Have you (or someone else) got OS media, just in case we need copies for
>ours?

   I have some of it. There are one of two disks inside of some of the
machines. But I can probably do better than that! I just parted out four of
them today and they all had 85Mb hard drives. I can ship you the drives!



>
>> The CPU in mine is 68020. It's card looks similar to Multibus but is
>> longer and has different connector. (I'll post pictures later.) It plugs
>> into the SMI bus. There's also a Multibus chassis in them for the IO cards
>> AND there's also STD+ card sockets in them for data acquisition cards. STD+
>> is an enhancment of the regular STD bus. Some of them also had VME sockets!
>> The use of four different busses really surprised me.
>
>Heh, that does seem to be slight overkill.
>
>> >They had early successes as graphics/cad workstations,
>> >so yes they had mice.
>>
>> Some did, some didn't. Some only used termials but others had graphics
>> capabilities. I think mine all just used terminals.
>
>Shame, that. Ours has graphical capability; four BNC sockets on the back
>and a big CAD monitor with it (which is what drew me to the system - one
>of my big interests is in graphics workstations)

   Just checked mine today to be sure. It does not have any graphics outputs.


>
>> Masscomp was bought by Concurrent,
>> >so there used to be some info on the concurrent users
>> >group web pages at www.ccuruser.org. That seems gone now,
>> >but archive.org might help you dig up some old stuff there.
>>
>> There'll be lots more there soon!
>
>yay! :-)
>
>> It uses an Excelan EXOS 201 Intelligent Multibus Ethernet Controller. I
>> have manuals for it. One of them has already gone to Al.
>
>I wonder if that's the same one as in my NCR Tower (which is also
>multibus for the IO boards). EXOS rings a bell.

    I'll post a picture soon and you can compare against it. Or Al should
have the manual poated soon. I'd guess that they're arriving at his place
any day now.

   Just out of curiousity, let me know what kinds of Multibus card you find
in the NCR tower.

     Joe
>
>cheers
>
>Jules
>
>
Received on Wed Nov 24 2004 - 17:08:09 GMT