10 Nov
2015
10 Nov
'15
10 a.m.
I remember joining DEC in early October 1973. At the time I was working
for a small local company called Newbury Labs.
When I was an undergraduate at Cambridge University (1985-1988) they were
still using (somewhat later) Newbury terminals on the mainframe. Due to the
metal cases they were often known as 'biscuit tins'.
I rescued one when they were being cleared out, I probably still have it somewhere.
It has a separate keyboard (just an array of switches) and I think has a VT131-like
editing mode (probably totall different commands though). I remember inside there's
a monitor PCB on the back of the upper part of the case and one or two boards
full of logic. Probably a microprocessor in there, and quite a bit of TTL. I remember
some 74181 ALUs (of all things!)
-tony