11 Sep
2016
11 Sep
'16
1:50 p.m.
On 2016-Sep-11, at 11:09 AM, Paul Koning wrote:
But it's not just European machines falling to obscurity, it's the range of minis
in general. There were dozens and dozens
of now-forgotten minicomputer models in the US in the late-60s/early-70s, both from
small-time manufacturers and lesser-known
models from well-known companies.
bitsaver's has a list that gives an idea of the scope:
ftp://bitsavers.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de/topic/minicomputer/ComputerDesign_Apr71.pdf
I'd love to see or (be able to) build a museum/collection displaying that range but
how much of that hardware will one run across nowadays?
On Sep 11,
2016, at 1:25 PM, Noel Chiappa <jnc at mercury.lcs.mit.edu> wrote:
...
I don't think anyone looks down on the more obscure machines, in fact I
personally (and many others, I suspect) are very happy to see people paying
attention to them, and my respects to the people who are working to save them.
One of the problems with "obscure European machinery" is that documentation is
not available. No Siemens computers, for example. And the only trace I have found of the
Philips PR8000 is a one line mention in a list of computers, just enough to confirm
that's the machine I once used whose model number I had forgotten.
It's not clear why this is so. Fewer collectors? Not much commercial success for
some or many of those machines?