9 Jun
2024
9 Jun
'24
12:50 a.m.
On 6/8/24 15:17, jim stephens via cctalk wrote:
On 6/8/24 12:33, Jon Elson via cctalk wrote:
The Artronix PC CPU box was about an 18" cube, but then
there was the console and LINCtape drives, which were each
rack-mount boxes about 9" high.
Jon
On 6/8/24 11:56, Vincent Slyngstad via cctalk
wrote:
I'll ask Al Weber if he has anything. I know unless it's
PC sized he doesn't have it. He has a lot of RS6000 stuff
I need to pick up and Victor. I think he did a give away
of a lot of his documentation about 5 years ago, so he may
have given it away if he had it.
thanks
Jim
On 6/8/2024 7:43 AM, Jon Elson via cctalk
wrote:
Well, I believe that LINC LAP-6 will "boot" on an
Artronix PC. I am fairly sure I did try that a long time
ago.
And, the guys who resurrected the LINC for the VCF demo
did have LAP-6 running. One big feature of the Artronix
PC was a TEK storage scope that allowed you to see a
whole page of text at a time, instead of the tiny window
that was available on the LINC. I think the LINC could
only support about 8 or 12 short lines due to the slow
refresh.
Jon
On 6/7/24 20:42, Vincent Slyngstad via cctalk
wrote:
> On 6/7/2024 6:19 PM, Jon Elson via cctalk wrote:
>> OK, I have to chime in here. I worked for Artronix
>> about 1972. The LINC computer was developed at MIT
>> for use in biomedical research labs, and a bunch of
>> people involved with it later moved to Washington
>> University in St. Louis. The Biomedical Computer Lab
>> there later added some features such a a crude memory
>> mapping unit and more memory, and called this the
>> Programmed Console, so as not to scare people away.
>> Artronix began building these PC's and selling them
>> to hospitals for radiation therapy planning. I have
>> no idea how many were sold. They were built into a
>> desk, and used 7400-series logic chips. They etched
>> their own PC boards, drilled them by hand and
>> soldered in the chips by hand. I wrote a series of
>> diagnostics for them.
>
> Do any survive? I've looked for them but never found one.
An Artronix PC? I seriously doubt it, but it is
possible. There is at least one LINC that was restored
about a decade ago, and taken out to VCF 10. If an
Artronix PC did evade the scrapper, it would not be
that hard to get it running again.
Even maintenance drawings would be great.
Does any software survive? Diagnostics would be cool,
but so would MUMPS. Not sure the radiology software
would be useful, but it would still be of historic
interest.