29 Dec
2007
29 Dec
'07
7:25 a.m.
Great site. Thanks!
I'm an Alpha Micro fan, as well (also DEC and ModComp and
Apple ... ;-)
Years ago I was the angel for "Personal Computer Corp." - and we sold
Alpha Micro AM-100's as our "high end" system :-)
I have a AM-2056 that I restored to "health" about two years ago. One
thing about AM's - once you have 'em running - they seem to stay up
forever...
I like the AM-2000 series also. I'm still hoping to get a AM-2K or -3K
(or -4K? a man can dream) at some point, but I imagine most of those are
still operational somewhere.
What's installed in your machine? How many ports? Ethernet?
I do have to say that the Eagles are still my favourites. The E300 that
AMPM runs on is 1994-vintage, so on-topic (this one was built in 1997, so
still on-topic), but the fact that they have TCP stack and Ethernet
options makes it fun and easy to work into a server farm. And hosting an
Alpha Micro site on an Alpha Micro is fun stuff!
AM Story: I picked up some AMOS VHS system tapes from
a friend -
which had been stored for years in a warehouse - and who know where
before that. I used a new VHS player to read them all successfully
into my AM. Quite amazing after all those years...
I also backed up my AM-2056 to a new VHS tapes - and restored the
tapes to a new HDD - which worked perfectly. AM's use of VHS
technology was a clever and inexpensive backup technique - it
clearly has more "lasting power" than some other backup
technologies.
When you say "new VHS player" are you using the AM's VCR equipment NOS,
or just an off-the-shelf one?
I remember the system administrator at the Salvation Army telling me that
they backed up to VHS (in retrospect I think they were using either AM-20XX
or AM-3000 units at the individual corps/churches) and being incredulous,
that it had to be some other form of magtape.
I'm getting questions now and then about what hardware people need to find
to restore from an AM tape, like the old PC and Mac-based VideoTRAX system,
so I should probably do a page on that.
Also, I
recently acquired an AM-1200, and there will be a model
page for that as soon as I get it operational.
I also have a nice AM-1042 that is anxiously awaiting restoration.
It's clean (came from a dentist's office), I've tested the PS, but
it's currently not bootable. If any of the folks on this list are not familiar with
Alpha Micro,
do yourself a favor and check out Cameron's website!!
Thank you for the kind word :)
--
------------------------------------ personal: http://www.cameronkaiser.com/ --
Cameron Kaiser * Floodgap Systems * www.floodgap.com * ckaiser at floodgap.com
-- Gravity is a myth. The Earth just sucks. -----------------------------------