I am helping to gather original documents and/or artifacts concerning the
Remington Rand 409-series computers for the Remington Rand 409-series
museum being set up in Rowayton, CT. The models of interest are the 409-2
and the 409-2R. These are tube, punch-card, and programming panel machines
>from the 1950s.
We are interested in documenting the location of all surviving artifacts,
but also would like to acquire particularly interesting items by donation
or purchase.
We are looking specifically for anything related to the programming of
these machines, such as the programming panels, programming manuals, or the
programming jumper wires. Photographs or drawings of programming panels
(originals or reproduced in third-party publications), with or without
programs wired on them, also would be of interest.
If you have any of the above, or have more general items such as Remington
Rand brand computer tubes or punch cards, whether or not you wish to sell
or donate them, please e-mail me at:
egendorf(a)mit.edu.
Thanks.
On December 9, Zach Malone wrote:
> > Respectfully suggest, use your kid sister to probe the voltage
> points.
>
> Waiting for the inevitable McGuire "is she cute?".
I try to reserve that for the rescue list...less "offendable" crowd
over there. ;)
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire
St. Petersburg, FL
Chris-
Whew, sorry I forgot about you, with the list
being down, the depression nuked my recall.
The S&H looks like $5, so $30 will take it.
You can send those government agents with my funds to:
The Estopinal Group
attn: Doug Quebbeman
903 Spring Street
Jeffersonville, IN 47130
Again, sorry about that!
Regards,
-doug q
Same machine, new problem. ^_^
Whilst out in the garage playing with the 44 (which I still don't
have an OS for...), my kid sister and one of her friends come
out to the garage to smoke. (They're not allowed to smoke in the house.)
Anyway, while the 44 is running, her friend says, "Wow, that's loud!",
to which Monica replies "This one's louder!" and turns on the KS10...
You know what's coming. And we had christmas tree packages and such all
over the garage, too, so navigating the garage in the dark was real fun...
(For those who didn't see it coming, the garage breaker went...)
Anyway, after resetting the breaker, waiting for the VAX to reboot,
checking that the KS10 was still in working order (I wouldn't be
mailing if the KS10 was broken. I'd be busy burying my sister. ^_^)
and putting back all the boxes I stepped on or knocked over, it
was discovered that the 11/44 no longer powered on. The power control
lights are on, the RX02 and SCSI disks inside the case work, but
the BA11 (Is that the right part?) will not turn on. When you turn the
switch on the front panel, nothing happens. No click, no fans, nothing.
The breaker on the back of the BA11 did not trip. I turned it off and
back on, nothing happened. I ran the AC power checks in the manual and
nothing happened. I checked the front-panel wiring was still connected,
it was. I pulled and reseated the front-panel control board in the
UNIBUS. Nada. It looks like it should be working, it doesn't smell burnt,
and I opened the top of the BA11 power supply and looked inside, and
it looks really scary (what, with the THIS VOLTAGE WILL KILL YOU stickers
and wires thick as my fingers and whatnot...) but it doesn't look burnt.
Is there a hidden switch or fuse or something in there? That's what it looks
like... Failing that, someone got directions for checking out an 11/44
power supply?
-------
>> There was an optional second processor board that you could install
>> and it became a true dual processor machine. You could switch
>> between the two processors with a hot key. Both processors could be
>> independently compiling, editing, debugging, etc.
>
> Oh now THAT is cool. :-)
>
> Anybody know of any other systems to implement this sort of of
>functionality?
The same concept is used for the Mac's and their PC cards. The Intel chip
is placed on a card, and it runs independant of the mac (but shares some
features like drive controller, stuff like that). You swap between them
with a hot key, and you can have things running on each (ie: start
something heavy on the Mac, swap to windows/dos/whatever OS you are
running, it is a true Intel compatible setup, and run things there.) Swap
between as much as you want, each will continue to run, being blissfully
unaware the other is there. Connection between the two is nice, you can
have shared folders between them. The Mac will view it as a folder, the
PC will view it as an additionally available drive. And you can cut and
paste between the two.
Very nice setup, too bad Apple abondoned them, and stopped upgrading the
driver software, so they don't work too well past System 7.6.1 (they will
work under OS 8 and 9, but some problems can arise)
-chris
<http://www.mythtech.net>
On December 9, Zane H. Healy wrote:
> > Anybody know of any other systems to implement this sort of of
> >functionality?
>
> The DEC Rainbow has two different CPU's in it, however, I don't know if you
> can run different stuff on each one at the same time. IIRC, it has a Z80
> and a 8086 so you can run different software (sort of like the
> Commodore 128 running Commodore or CP/M software).
I thought that was an 8088...but as far as I'm aware you can't run
them independently.
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire
St. Petersburg, FL
All,
Well, that was quick. The system is spoken for. Thanks to all for their interest.
Regarding the DEC service CD: in fact, there are 2 CDs. They are full of manuals and service stuff, BUT they cover more recent equipment than the PDP. The last dates on the CD are 1994, which says that there is a lot of VAX-related material on the discs, but not much with regards to PDP. My apologies. Anyway, I already had a couple of requests for them, so I guess I'll be giving the ol'burner a run for its money.
Cheers,
Frederic Charpentier
On December 9, Dave Mabry wrote:
> There was an optional second processor board that you could install
> and it became a true dual processor machine. You could switch
> between the two processors with a hot key. Both processors could be
> independently compiling, editing, debugging, etc.
Oh now THAT is cool. :-)
Anybody know of any other systems to implement this sort of of
functionality?
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire
St. Petersburg, FL
