18 May
1998
18 May
'98
8:13 a.m.
On Sun, 17 May 1998, Kirk Scott wrote:
-----Original Message-----
From: Max Eskin [SMTP:maxeskin@hotmail.com]
Sent: Sunday, May 17, 1998 6:26 PM
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
Subject: MIT flea
I only managed to go there for 50min. and only found out about a
west end when I left. It was cheaper than last time though. I bought
nothing. THe things I saw that were of interest, however:
A Xerox machine that looked like a PC clone, but the monitor plugged
into the system unit with a wide ribbon-like cable, very crude-
looking. What was this?
Sounds like an 820 or a 16/8; both of them have large flat ribbon cables
that connect to the drive housing. The system unit is actually the
monitor assembly, that's where the motherboard and memory is. The drives
(rigid, floppy, or both) are housed in a separate unit with it's own
power supply. If you think that vonnection looks crude, you ought to see
how the centronic printer connector is hooked up....with the same flat
ribbon cable and the user had to go inside the monitor housing to
install it. Very crude indeed...not at all Plug and Play!!! Just as a
matter of curiousity, how much were they asking for it? >
Kirk Scott
scottk5(a)ibm.net
That is not the way that Xerox built the 820 series, Kirk, though I
cannot speak authoritatively about the 16/8 I believe that it is not true
of them either. The cable for the 8" drive box was terminated with two
50-pin edge connectors on the drive end and a 37-pin D connector on the
monitor/cpu end. The cable for the 5.25" drives was similar except for
having 34-pin edge connectors. That cable carried the power for the
floppies, as the drive box had no power supply.
- don