Supercomputers, fishing for information

Camiel Vanderhoeven iamcamiel at gmail.com
Sat Nov 5 09:02:40 CDT 2016


I'm making arrangements to have four (mini-)supercomputers from the
1980's shipped to me. In the mean time, I'm trying to find out what I
can about these systems, so this is a fishing expedition.

The systems are:
* Convex C1-XP
* Convex C1-XL
* Intel iPSC/860
* Ardent Titan

Pictures of these can be found on my website, at
http://www.vaxbarn.com/index.php/collection/27-odd/76-four-supercomputers
(click on the thumbnails to see a larger version)

I'd like to get in touch with anyone who knows anything about these
machines, as well as anyone who may have documentation, but I also
have two specific questions:

- Can anyone identify the tape drives shown in the pictures? I believe
the one in the Intel iPSC/860 is an Exabyte 8mm one, but the ones used
on the Convex and the Ardent are a mystery to me.

- Does anyone know what the SRM (System Resource Manager) for the
iPSC/860 physically looks like? Does it look like a PC, and does it
say Intel on the front?

Reason I'm asking is that I'm getting these out of an estate, and I
need to tell them what to look for.

Thanks,

Camiel.


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