9 Aug
2012
9 Aug
'12
7:42 a.m.
Hi
I have some rare machines but it is hard to know how rare.
The Nicolet 1080 I have was in a group of only about 375 made.
To my knowledge, there are only 5 still around to day and only
2 known to be running.
Other things have value but are not particularly rare. These
are just popular, like an IMSAI 8800.
Some, I know are rare but have no idea how many there
may be, like the SIM-4 4004 system.
I would suppose the NA2000 modules would qualify as rare
since most have never seen them before.
Dwight
From: rodsmallwood at btconnect.com
To: cctech at classiccmp.org
Subject: RE: Rare systems register
Date: Thu, 9 Aug 2012 14:21:43 +0100
Good Idea
It would be nice to track the history of a system from the day it
left the factory to its current location.
I doubt the manufacturing and field service histories survive on many
systems. The most likely DEC candidates with a history would be DEC 10's and
20's. There used to be a publication called something like The Computer
Users Year Book. It listed most of the computer installations in the UK at
the time.
The really rare computers did not come from the large players but smaller
science/engineering led companies. I can think of two in the UK
Digico - Micro 16V (Two known examples survive)
Arcturus - One known example.
Then there was the next tier up MODCOMP, Data General, Burroughs, Datapoint
and so on. So registering who has a system not made by IBM or DEC in working
order (or could be made to work) and with some history behind it would be
well worth recording.
Rod Smallwood
-----Original Message-----
From: cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org [mailto:cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org]
On Behalf Of Colin Eby
Sent: 09 August 2012 10:49
To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts
Subject: Rare systems register
It occurred to me that the classic computer community could more actively
adopt the model used by car collectors to track survival, rarity, and
provenance/history of their objects. Has this been tried? Say something like
an HP 211x or early DEC PDPs register for instance? Has anyone had
experience with the success, or utility of this type of thing?
What got me thinking along these lines is the difference between perception
and reality over the relative rarity and value of systems. People often make
judgement calls base on personal affinities rather than anything empirical.
I've noted the disparity between people saying like, 'wow a straight PDP 8',
and opposed to ... 'ah that's just a Xerox word processor.' One measure is
their presence in the marketplace. How many 860s do you really see compare
to PDP8s? In my world I actually can put hands on three of the former and
only one of the latter. Just an example of course, but we all talk about
relative rarity with only production statistics to go on, and sometimes not
even that. Oddly, sometimes that is a poor indicator of survival, and
therefore rarity.
Thoughts?
"Zane H. Healy" <healyzh at aracnet.com> wrote:
At 7:22 AM -0700 8/8/12, Al Kossow wrote:
-- Colin
On 8/7/12 11:20 PM, Rod Smallwood wrote:
I get the impression that he seems to like to stay out of sight. I
typically forward requests like Earl's onto a Reseller I know (which
I just did with his message).
I've pointed out in the past that the fact that there is a rights
holder needs to be advertised, as a lot of people can't figure out
who to contact.
Zane
--
| Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Administrator |
| healyzh at aracnet.com | OpenVMS Enthusiast |
| | Photographer |
+----------------------------------+----------------------------+
| My flickr Photostream |
| http://www.flickr.com/photos/33848088 at N03/ |
| My Photography Website |
| http://www.zanesphotography.com | It's a mystery .. no one seems to know.
Quite a few people on this list know, and they have said it several
times on this
list. The rights were bought from Mentec by XX2247, LLC
I think Dave has been busy with other things, though.