Long-Planned Apollo Rescue Finally Goes Down

I can happily report that a rescue I'd been trying to coordinate since July finally took place. I'd been hanging out in the USENET newsgroup comp.sys.apollo for a while, hoping to find someone who would be willing to donate some Apollo hardware for my collection. Apollo was formed by people from Prime Computer, and the architecture of their operating system (Domain OS/Aegis) grew out of issues they found that they couldn't achieve with PRIMOS (notably, a virtual memory that can be shared across the network). So, it came to pass that a software engineer from Cummins Engine (maker of the diesel engines used in Dodge Ram trucks) contacted me. He was helping to decommission the Apollos that Cummins had been using. Way back in July, he set aside the following items, which I was to go and pick up. However, at the time, my car was facing imminent breakdown (which finally occurred in October), so we went back and forth looking for a way to make the transfer. Finally, he decided (after being reallocated after a reduction in force) to bail and head to Kalifornia. Befre leaving, he decided he'd just bring the systems from Columbus (Indiana) down hre to Clarksville to me! Not just a rescue, but I got them to bring the systems to me! Anyway, here's a thumbnail list of what I got: one DN2500 workstation two HP425 workstations one Apollo 19 inch monochrome monitor one HP 19 inch monochrome monitor three apollo keyboards with Logitech mice an external shoebox hard drive for the DN2500 that contains the latest version of DomainOS, 10.4 and a virgin registry an external shoebox containing an Exabyte 8mm drive (probably an 8200) two apollo token ring cards, four interface boxes, and four boxes that let you switch nodes in and out of the ringnet All in very clean shape! The HP 425s each contain two hard drives, and have Ethernet built-in (thinnet & AUI). The DN2500 has a single ISA slot which currently contains an Ethernet card. I'll be saving the token ring hardware and will play with it, but will likely use the Ethernet on a regular basis. The only glaring ommission: No paper documentation. The newsgroup has a very well-developed FAQ, and there are many resources on the web for Apollos. Th first thing I'll need to do is to back up the DN2500's shoebox drive, so that I can put it back in the virgin state if need be. Personally, I'm grateful that the engineer took the time to put a fresh OS on the system; I know that some of you like rescueing systems taken directly out of service, so that ther actual day-to- day use can be documented and preserved. However, while I think that's cool, I think I prefer hat I've got. The engineer had intended to help me set up the systems and get them running, but I really don't have room to do that right now, nor do I have the time. These systems almost don't qualify (the 425's were made in '93), but it's a dead architecture, so anything so consigned should probably be exempt from the 10-year rule. Well, that's all for now; I've had no prior experience with the Apollos, just considered them kindred to the Primes, so I was someday going to have to have them. Regards, -doug quebbeman