27 Jun
2007
27 Jun
'07
11:31 a.m.
Hey all;
So I'm reading "The NEW McGraw-Hill TELECOM Factbook" (Second edition,
"A
plain English guide anyone can use!", 820 pages, phone book sized) and
while delving into the sections on Circuit and Packet switching it occurs
to me that these machines are just as much of an object that has enabled
our industrial and technological revolution to continue in leaps and
bounds as the minis and mainframes of yesteryear.
They're also damned cool.
Are there people out there, on the list or otherwise, that are actively
collecting these machines? Admittedly, unlike a PDP8 you can use (as Dave
McGuire does) on a daily basis, a twelve ton NEAX isn't too 'dramatic' as
an attention piece. But, according to my little book here, they tend to be
multiprocessor, reel-to-reel storage (as they 'reboot' so infrequently
they need a very long-lasting storage medium), all sorts of good stuff.
And with an average "Mean time between failure of 1 failure in 40
years"... boy, that just speaks for it.
So, anyone out there have one of these in their... basement?
JP