8 Aug
2012
8 Aug
'12
7:17 a.m.
We currently house the former WRE 7090 on our farm in South Australia. We
have what appears to be the complete computer system as it was turned off,
with 7090 computer hardware including a 1401 front end and magnetic tape
drives - about 20 large cabinets in all. All computer manuals are included,
with program printouts for system programs and diagnostics, as well as
punched cards for loading and scheduling jobs via the 1401.
We are not looking for more documents or tapes. A couple of our manuals are
somewhat damaged, and some of our punched cards have been dropped, damaged
or lost, but in general there seems to be enough backup documentation in
good condition to recover any lost programs or data.
We are interested to know what other 7090's there are still relatively
intact, and what, if any, work is being put into their systems.
The 7090 would not be a cheap computer to run, as it uses huge amounts of
power and therefore needs considerable air conditioning. In its latter years
after the ESRO space program finished, the WRE 7090 was used amongst other
things for recording mineral exploration data. There is at least one
Australian company using restored 7090 magnetic tape drives with programs
emulating the 7090 magnetic tape drivers to recover this stored data. It is
interesting that the magnetic tapes are still readable after so many years
in the South Australian Department of Mines environmentally controlled
storage.
Susan Freebairn
_____
From: peter at vanpeborgh.eu
To: lawrence at ljw.me.uk; cube1 at charter.net; michaelv at virginiairrigation.net;
henridhosty at hotmail.com; IanK at vulcan.com; cctech at classiccmp.org;
aek at bitsavers.org; wdonzelli at gmail.com; lin.jones at tnmoc.org;
scmobjectenquiries at ScienceMuseum.ac.uk
Subject: Fw: To all with interest in IBM 7090 - follow on
Date: Tue, 7 Aug 2012 11:21:40 +0100
Guys,
Original email attached.
Two new thoughts:
* I do seem to have generated some strong interest for the 7090
documentation, which is good. And some controversy as to who should receive
these bits: US or UK (perhaps Australia?). The 7090 was an American
invention but this one was used in the UK.
Perhaps each of you with a strong interest could make a case to us for
receiving this material. The decision of the deceased owner's family, the
clearing team and myself to be final.
* Something which might influence decisions: the materials are paper,
metal and plastic. The paper is slightly damp, the metal has corroded in
some cases and the plastic has some mould patches. None of which make the
material unusable in any way but I thought I must be clear on this point. I
should have done so in the original email, sorry.
Kind regards,
peter vp
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Peter Van Peborgh
62 St Mary's Rise
Writhlington Radstock
Somerset BA3 3PD
UK
01761 439 234
|| | | | | | | | |
----- Original Message -----
From: Peter Van Peborgh <mailto:peter at vanpeborgh.eu>
To: cube1 at charter.net ; michaelv at virginiairrigation.net ;
henridhosty at hotmail.com ; IanK at vulcan.com ; cctech at classiccmp.org ;
aek at bitsavers.org ; wdonzelli at gmail.com ; lin.jones at tnmoc.org ;
scmobjectenquiries at ScienceMuseum.ac.uk
Sent: Monday, August 06, 2012 12:21 PM
Subject: To all with interest in IBM 7090
Guys,
I am sending this to all who have registered an interest in the IBM 7090 and
museums. Sorry if I got some people wrong!
This computer started life at AWRE in the UK (nuclear weapons design?!) and
finished in the Medical Computing department at Manchester Uni in 1970,
where it ran for 10-20 years.
It had 4 channels, 32K memory, card reader, card punch, 300 LPM barrel
printer and ?20 mag tapes. It also had an IBM 1401 for printer I/O.
I have now surveyed the stuff available. There is no hardware. It is a lot
of (probably complete) hardware documentation, cicuit diagrams, s/w
documentation (IBSYS, etc) also. Also a lot of mag tapes of mixed content
and some card trays of mixed content.
Are any of you out there interested? It is all quite heavy so transport will
be a challenge, but surmountable!
The stuff will be available in the first week of September. Any sensible
offers will be considered. It might go on eBay but I will wait until you
guys respond first.
Kind regards,
peter vp
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Peter Van Peborgh
62 St Mary's Rise
Writhlington Radstock
Somerset BA3 3PD
UK
01761 439 234
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