18 Jun
2009
18 Jun
'09
12:30 p.m.
Perhaps I overstate it in saying 'there is no
story'; if this 1960's machine
was seen in substantially complete form (is that accurate?) at a DECUS event 20
years later in the 80's and hasn't been seen since, then certainly there is the
disconcerting question of what happened to it.
The 1980s were a bloodbath for these machines. 20-25 year old
computers were pretty much just looked at as metal, especially in a
corporate museum (remember, corporate museums play under different
rules, often dictated by the marketing and accounting departments). We
can lament the loss of this PDP-6, but we must remember that many
other very important machines (probably) reached extinction in the
1980s as well. Where are the members of the IBM 7000 line? The big
Burroughs machines? The Univac 1100 line?
While I do not like the idea of that PDP-6 getting scrapped, I can
certainly believe that it did, and really can not damn the people that
sent it to the junkyard. Times were different back then.
--
Will