23 Dec
1998
23 Dec
'98
1:35 p.m.
At 10:19 12/23/98 -0800, you wrote:
I've finally gotten round to putting a page up with
the pictures that I
shot at the Moffitt Field Historical Computer Collection "Visible Storage"
facility during VCF II, but have spaced a bit on the identities of some of
the artifacts.
The page is not quite ready for public consumption yet, as it is still
missing various titles and it should be a bit better organized... But, if
anyone would like to take a look, and perhaps assist with identifying the
units without titles, you can access the page at:
http://www.rdrop.com/~jimw/jcgm-mfhcc.html
Sixth row down, first image on left (the 34589_23.JPG) looks like some sort
of high vacuum processing equipment. Early Ion Beam Implanter? Early RF
etch system? Simple diffusion furnace? Hard to tell without being there. I
can't tell the manufacturer since the side panels are off and front panel
is not in view (could be even a one-off experimental or lab unit) but I can
easily identify a 4" oil diffusion pump -probably from CVC Products judging
from the blue-green color and shape (cylindrical thing
with the ribbed
appearance in middle just below upper deck), a 2" oil diff.
pump at far
right of upper deck (CVC again?) plus a Welch mechanical pump in lower
left of rack. Power supplies are the objects in lower right of rack. Other
components and sections are somewhat identifiable by me too.
Anyway, this item is on topic for both the museum and ClassicCmp as it
could likely have been used in a semiconductor fab facility. It could have
lived its life as an R&D tool in early IC, uP or transistor development or
in manufacturing early IC's. I determine the age, from the components and
construction style, is from very late 60's to maybe as late as late '70's.
The museum should have gotten a history of this machine from the donor. Any
one of the many older Silicon Valley IC manufacturers could have donated
this. Could be an important pioneering development machine (first Intel
4004 uP built using it for example) or just a regular old, normal workaday
machine.
Eleventh row down, second image in (the 34591_10.JPG) is a darned
interesting mechanical device driven by a capacitor-start motor. Just look
at the size of those huge bolts holding the two header plates and the
innards together! Looks like a placard sets in top of the plexiglas top
cover. Too bad you didn't shoot a closeup foto of it to help describe this
thing.
Fourteenth row down, first image on left (34591_22.JPG) is unidentifiable
to me as a specific machine but there are two large Lambda DC power
supplies -two in the bottom of the right-hand rack and one toward the
bottom of the left. They have a dark grey painted area on a clear anodized
aluminum 5 1/4" panel. Detail is not too good for me to pick out any other
components. Could it be a piece of in-plant test equipment that some
company made of which one or more of those rack components is a computer?
Twentieth row down, far right image (34593_13.JPG) I don't know what the
machine is but there are two Friden paper tape devices built-into the
thing. They are the lighter grey rectangular objects; the left one may be a
punch but I know the right-hand one is a reader as I have one somewhere
around here.
That's all the input I feel I can give Jim. This was fun! I wish I had some
of those old classics in my collection. Also, seeing those IBM card punches
brought back memories :) Actually, I wish I could spend a week alone just
poking through that museum studying the details of each machine.
Thanks for the tour,
--Chris
-- --
Christian Fandt, Electronic/Electrical Historian
Jamestown, NY USA cfandt(a)netsync.net
Member of Antique Wireless Association
URL: http://www.ggw.org/freenet/a/awa/