Upon the date 08:57 AM 11/26/99 +0100, Enrico Badella said something like:
Dag Spicer wrote:
Hi Enrico,
You may heartened to know to that the History Center has a complete,
runnable, IBM 4381 in its collection. It was in use up to time of donation
(last October) at the A. C. Delco plant in Rochester, NY.
The machine is on display and in excellent condition. All necessary
cabling, and I believe system software (we received about 100 reels of tape
we haven't read yet), a million punch cards (literally), and manuals formed
part of the donation.
Is it running/runnable?
Have you investigated the legal aspects of running the original IBM software
on it? I received a mean letter from a guy, apparently not from IBM, saying
it was illegal to run the VM version the previous owner had installed.
This is something I'm interested in too Dag and Enrico. Whenever I get to
trying to bring up my IBM 9370 I think this may be a question I'd need to
address if I try to approach active IBM CE's who could answer my questions
if needed. I understand VSE is the OS on my machine. (Anybody got any VSE
OS manuals??)
Just now I saw thet you are the Editorial Board of the IEEE Annals. I love
it. Why don't you add a small section dedicate to hobbyist restoration
suggestions or ways to meet other guys/machines. I find it hard to
locate other persons with this hobby, at least in Italy
Good point Enrico. It would be especially interesting if folks who would
not normally be connected with collectors/ClassicCmp/etc. could discuss or
offer email assistance, moral support to those of us who need it on certain
machines.
Incidentally, I'm pleased the AC Delco donated their 4381 to TCMHC. They're
sort of in my back yard (130 miles from me) and they went the extra mile
(no pun intended, really) to send it out to you.
Regards, Chris
-- --
Christian Fandt, Electronic/Electrical Historian
Jamestown, NY USA cfandt(a)netsync.net
Member of Antique Wireless Association
URL:
http://www.antiquewireless.org/