Date : Sun, 05 Mar 2006 12:04:06 +0000
From : Jules Richardson <julesrichardsonuk@...>
Subject: Re: Warning: Sad case on list!
Fragula wrote:
> Hi Jules!
>
> Jules Richardson wrote:
>
>> Blimey! I remember you well - around ten years ago, you gave me an awful
>> lot of useful advice regarding a Cambridge Workstation that I'd slowly
>> been putting back together from bits.
> <gulp> Sure it was me?... Nobody was injured, right? and you're not
> looking to sue? ;-)
Ha ha! That ACW is still going strong, and it acquired a sibling not so long
ago - hopefully they won't start breeding!
>> You sound like the sort of person we need over at Bletchley...
> Uhhh.. You mean as a groundskeeper, in the park, no? ;->
Actually, that wouldn't be so bad either - place looks like a jungle...
> Oh.. the Museum.. My idea of heaven, but sadly I don't think they would
> put up with me for long. I'd be wanting to rebuild Collosus, using
> original spec components, then soup it up a bit by replacing the stock
> valves with Nuvistors. (Y'all remember Nuvistors, right? <evil grin>)
> and paint it with lurid purple hammerite. (y'all got /customised/ beebs,
> right?)
Actually, I'm not against doing cool stuff with machines that are still dead
easy to come by like beebs - hence the image wall project and the idea of
chaining lots of beebs together to render fractals...
> some poor, unsuspecting old 1980s computer) i.e. I gather some people
> still use Amigas LOL! ;-/ Ah.. Erm.. I found three in the attic.. No
> idea how they got there, but the attic is mine, therefore they are mine,
> so I reserve the right to Ebay them.
Heh heh... I still have a couple, would love to find one of the more
impressive Amigas for the museum though - I think we only have A500 and A1200s
:-(
> The 32016 2P doesn't do a RAM check.. In fact I can't think of any Acorn
> machine that does, can I? The Atom doesn't.
Hmm, I think the A680 might - I'm sure it said something about testing memory
when it started up. But other than that, no, I don't think any of the Acorns do.
Actually, presumably the PET/FIT can RAM-test a BBC micro (documentation's not
handy for me to look that up)
> I had to write my own. its
> one of the few things the PDP-11 does better. But then it does take an
> aeon or two to boot.
Urgh, picked up a pair of Sun E6500s a while back, with 14GB of RAM on them -
takes about 30 mins for them to get through the memory check...
Worst PDP is going to be the DECSystem 570 when we get it running, as I think
that's got 4MB on it - start it up first thing and it might be operational by
lunchtime!
> An original 1970s Intel development board with probably the whole 8xxx
> range of chips on it, PSU, keyboard, and LED display (it does stuff
> too, but I've no idea what...) all screwed to a nice metal base.
Ahhh, I think I know the board you mean. Can't for the life of me remember
what it's called now, but we have one just like that (still in its original
box too!)
> A MGT Sam Coupe,
I've been trying to find us one of those for ages - they're really difficult
to come by. We've got just about everything Sinclair right from the days when
he was making amplifier chips, so the 'super spectrum' would make a nice
addition! Think I've only got wind of one in the last three years though and
then the guy who was going to donate it to us went quiet :(
> a TRS-80 Model 4 with 3 disk drives and IIRC 128K of RAM
I'm forever tripping over TRS-80s! We seem to get offered no end of those for
some reason; I'm amazed there are so many about.
> a box of Orics of various flavours (Oric=Tangerine so in the box
> with a Tanbug-1 , same as AIM-65 i think.
I've got a feeling we're not exactly flush with Orics. We've got one AIM-65
but it's an interesting beastie as it's in a ruggedised metal case - I seem to
remember it was used in the field for testing drives...
> The guts of a MicroVAX-II, that, apart from the fact that the BA23
> chassis was badly bent, and the GRP sleeve destroyed, when it was thrown
> into the skip
If you're desperate for a new case for it I'm sure we'll unearth one at some
point. We've got an enormous amount of DEC hardware (including a straight 8 -
whoo) and there seems to be no end in sight of people trying to offload more...
> otherways I'll flog it off for spares so some real VAX fan can keep their
> baby going.
Ahh, fair enough!
> <IRQ>
> BTW, the missing second processor from recent mentionings. Flight
> Electronics did a TM-424 or similar 2p with 25K of RAM, did they not? I
> might have some tech blurb on it somewhere.
Blimey - I'd be very interested to hear of anything you might find. I'm trying
to put together an official account of all official second processors, and
that's not one I know anything about.
I think (off the top of my head) that brings the number of different official
second processors around up to 17...
It wasn't marketed to the
> home/business brigade as a second processor, it was an eval/dev Kit for
> Transputer engineers. that only worked with a BBC Micro, they did a
> similar thing for the 68K.
Deffo be interesting to see - I've got a particular fondness for Transputer
stuff.
>> It was that ACW along with an ARM Evaluation kit many moons ago that got
>> me started in the Acorn collecting game; I tend to only keep an eye out
>> for the really oddball stuff in order to preserve it nowadays though
>> (the count of Acorns is getting close to 50, and enough is enough! :-)
> Fifty! Strewth! And I though I had problems (counts fingers/toes.. I
> think I'm on about a dozen Acorns, mostly Model Bs with various
> different kits aboard.
That's without counting second processors too... oh, and a handful of Torch
machines that use the beeb as the I/O processor...
Hopefully I'll have most of it over at Bletchley at some point rather than it
all being stuck in storage here!
Just for giggles, the most 32016 copros likely to be seen in one place at once:
http://www.patooie.com/temp/32016_copros.jpg
:-)
Not all mine I hasten to add! I was slowly distributing them to people (and
yes, I know there are a couple left earmarked for people on this list; I've
not forgotten about you!)
> I still have my ACW, its still working, but the monitor needs a good
> cleaning and realigning, though its still technically usable. Sometime
> find a decent, reliable, economically priced and suitably expendable
> repair person to adjust. (I HATE HT!) But it really needs ear defenders,
> and can warm the little windowless "dressing room" annexe off my
> bedroom, where the ACW and a few other select devices live, to an
> unbearable temperature in less time than the laws of physics indicates
> is possible from a single 13A socket.
Couple that with the old favourite of having someone physically hold the
circuit breaker in whilst everything starts up ;-)
seeya
Jules