Stanford's PDP-6 ( was Re: Hardware Hobbyists vs. Emulator Jockeys)

I'm resending this with a revised title so someone has a chance of finding this again in the future. I sent a similar message to alt.sys.pdp10 when the subject came up last time. Al Kossow wrote: > Brent Hilpert wrote: >> Rich Alderson wrote: >>> On the other hand, the last PDP-6 in existence was destroyed by the >>> Computer >>> Museum in Boston about 20 years ago, so you're one up there. >> >> OK, I don't think I've heard this story. >> Someone contributing to Wikipedia seems to want to tangentially >> counter it, >> without explaining the background story. > > That would be me, a CHM employee, that has access to all of the Boston > museum > collection records. I have spoken to several of the staff members who > were there > at the time. I have been trying to find ANY evidence this occurred, and > have not > been able to. > > CHM has the fast memory box from Stanford's PDP-6. It came from the > Compaq donation > to CHM of what they had in >> DEC's << internal collection, and was NOT > donated to > the Boston Museum. As best as I've been able to determine, the 6 was > sent to a DEC > warehouse after the anniversary at DECUS, and sat there until what was > there was > sent to CHM. Since there is no record of this machine going to the > Boston museum, > nor does anyone there that I have talked to remember it coming there, it > would have > been difficult for them to have dismantled it. Every major donation to > the Computer > Museum was cataloged. I cannot find anything for Stanford's PDP-6 in > their records > or in the Museum Report, which at the time listed every donation they > received. > > I would like to find someone INSIDE of DEC that saw it in while > it was in the warehouse, but I haven't been able to locate anyone yet. > > The rumor of the Museum destroying the system started because their gift > shop was selling > modules, including the ALU modules from the PDP-6. I have been told > these were from a > collection of DEC module spares that DEC donated. I haven't been able to > determine > the earliest that they were being sold. If it was before the > anniversary, they obviously > could not have been from Stanford's machine. > > Because of this controversy, CHM has a policy that no artifacts will > ever be offered for > sale to the public. Items that are deacessioned are offered only to > other non-profit > institutions.