8 Apr
1998
8 Apr
'98
9:39 p.m.
Doug Yowza wrote:
There's a local surplus place selling a few
Burroughs machines for $30
that look interesting, but I know nothing about them -- I'm not even sure
they're computers. I believe they were used by Delta airlines. There's
no clear model number on them, but the closest thing to one says "B 27
CLS" "3748 00681", so I'm guessing they are B27's which appear to
be
related to B25's which appear to be 186 boxen running BTOS (?) from
1985/86.
I suppose I'll get one, since the price includes what looks to be a
standard RS-232 terminal which might be useful.
Anybody familiar with these beasties?
They are similar to the 25's that I used on Chanute AFB as an instructor up
until we closed the base in 1993. There waa also a clone (physically and in
working) made by NCR of both the B25 and 27. They did indeed run a BTOS
(Burroughs terminal Operating System) and a BASIC using an 80186 processor
housed in a square modular system that locked together. They had hard drive
modules and even servers that sat on the floor with a weird type of
removeable hard drive (Winchester?) When the terminal unit is turned on you
should see a series of periods showing activity in logging to the server. If
that stops then it's not connecting.
I haven't seen one since and after hours of banging away on one to compile
lesson plans I'm not too eager to see another too soon.
There's a guy that was our custodian for the Burroughs at Chanute that now
works at the U of Tennessee at Knoxville. His name is Elmer Baumgardner and
his email is ELMERB(a)UTK.EDU. I'm not sure how much of all of that he
remembers though since many changes in his duty stations since leaving
Chanute and then retiring to a civilian job in a university with
who-knows-what type of networks.
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Russ Blakeman
RB Custom Services / Rt. 1 Box 62E / Harned, KY USA 40144
Phone: (502) 756-1749 Data/Fax:(502) 756-6991
Email: rhblake(a)bbtel.com or rhblake(a)bigfoot.com
Website: http://members.tripod.com/~RHBLAKE/
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