15 Jun
1997
15 Jun
'97
3:14 p.m.
On Thu, 12 Jun 1997, A.R. Duell wrote:
Yes, there are machines like that - in my case, the PDP8 was one of them.
On the other hand, I didn't even know what a PERQ was when I was offered
one - it was basically 'Would you like a PERQ - we have one going spare',
but I fell in love as soon as I saw it...
Oh, you lucky thing!. The Terak is a machine
I'm looking out for, and I've
never managed to find one. Whatever you do, look after it.
I hadn't heard of it a month ago, but the moment I read about it I just
wanted one. Guess what happens a few weeks after that. Can't be abysmally unlucky /all/ your life. I may not have a PDP-{8,11},
but I have something
I thought the Terak had a Qbus backplane and a standard LSI11 CPU card. In
which case it's as close to a PDP11 as anything non-DEC ever can be...
Talking of obscure PDP11-related machines, has anyone else ever come
across the Tektronix 8530 etc systems. These machines were sold as micro
development systems and lived in 2 racks - one contained an LSI11 (or
PDP11/23) CPU card + RAM + disk controller + I/O + drives (either a couple
of 8" floppies or one floppy and a Micropolis 1200 hard disk), while the
other contained the development options -- in-circuit emulators, logic
analyser, EPROM programmer, etc. They ran either a much-hacked RT11 or a
much-hacked Unix.
extremely close. And it's my first ever
non-Motorola/Zilog/MOS platform. :-)
You mean you don't have _anything_ with an Intel CPU (4004, 4040, 8008,
8080, 8085, 80x86, 80x88)?
Any ideas as to which model? If it's the
long-lost PERQ T4, serial number
DEMO01, I'll not be responsible for my actions :-)....
I can't identify them, I'm afraid. It's got the (typical, I think)
portrait screen and a big floor unit with a single 8" floppy drive. I doubt Seriously, if
you are looking out for a PERQ, and don't really mind which
model you get (They are _ALL_ fine machines), you are very likely to find
one. An advert on alt.sys.perq will often get results.
I'm looking for any and all good machines. Unfortunately, I suffer from
two problems: lack of space and a requirement to ship or lug all of my stuff across Europe. It's distressing, sometimes. Maybe
I ought to get a driver's
license and buy a 2nd hand truck (oh yes, and lots of razor blades, just in
case). :-)
Moving a large collection of machines is a right pain - in my case, even
considering fitting all the shipping clamps, parking the heads, locking
things into the racks, etc would take a couple of days.
--
-tony
ard12(a)eng.cam.ac.uk
The gates in my computer are AND,OR and NOT, not Bill