Semi-OT: IDE & SATA to USB "dongles"

Chuck Guzis wrote: Don't forget the old CDC 6603-Bryant disk! My most vivd reminder of hydraulic actuators on CDC gear was on the 821 disk. We were running a benchmark with about eight of these things (connected through a QSE). We knew that one was leaking, but the leak wasn't enough to take the thing offline and we had a few hours invested in setting the benchmark up, so we decided to go with it. ---------------------------------- Billy: Through incredible luck, I never had to work on the Bryants. They always seemed to break on shifts that I didn't work. CDC starting buying them in the early '60s. I actually worked on 1604's with Bryant disks. I think the controller was a 1619. They were horrible to work with, and very hard on the hands. For Indutrial Data Products group, we used a few of the old Bryant drums and single platter fixed disks. STC wrote an OS for these drums in the late '60's. They put them all the world with the tracking stations. Last one I saw that was still running was around 1980. Would love to find one now. The model numbers were 8951 and 8952. One of the most reliable peripherals ever made, some ran for 15 years, 24 hours a day, without any maintenance. ------------------------------------ Chuck: At some point, a message pops up on the console that 821 Unit-so-and-such is offline. I run for the thing, forgetting about the lieak, have my hand out ready to punch the "on/off line" button, hit the puddle of fluid and do a wonderful imitation of a swan dive. I collect myself, punch the button and limp back... ------------------------------------ Billy: I don't place the model 821. There was an 841 that might be what you remember. It had the drives two high in an expandable rack. You kept bolting chassis together and then put end panels on it. It was hydraulic too. And leaked like a sieve. The beauty of the two high is that if the top drive leaked, it would drip on the bottom drive and take it out also. Two for the price of one! Had big ten high platter removeable disk stacks and was used on the 3000 systems with a controller called the 3234. ------------------------------------ Chuck: I REALLY don't miss the old hardware. If I wanted to work with heavy machinery, I'd go back to work in a steel mill. I'm sure that Billy has had his share of digging shredded ribbon out of the type train on a CDC 512 pritner, too. Wonderful rewarding job. Cheers, Chuck ------------------------------------- Billy: The 512 was an abomination. It was a rip off of the IBM 1402. To avoid paying fo patents, Rochester re-invented several wheels. The train used slugs that ran in tracks, but had no direct connection to each other (think about a bunch of ICs in a circular tube). Any wear and the timing changed. So you had to tweak the hammer timing almost daily. It ate ribbons. And if the operators tried to be cheap and use one to the last drop of ink, it would disasseble the ribbon and jam the pieces between the slugs and deep into the hammers. Some times a ribbon change could take an entire shift. It also used a paper tape reader for format control. This nasty little kludge used a sprocket drive on early 512s. When it tore the paper tape, usually late at night, it would high speed slew paper through the printer, jam the output stacker, and sometimes break the hammers. The 512 was probably the most hated peripheral CDC ever produced. Billy