12 Jul
2000
12 Jul
'00
4:37 a.m.
I've never seen one, but I imagine that the TC01
was originally designed
for the PDP-5, so it would have been made with System modules.
The TC01 was designed not for the TU56, or even the TU55, but for the
Type 555 DECtape transports, which used relay control rather than solid
state. So if there are TU56 transports on it, they've probably been
configured for relay control.
The transport is actually a TU55. I can't find anything that says TC01. Is
there a MUL (Module Utilization List) floating around on the net I could
compare the machine with?
It does look like the main parts of the controller may be factory done,
but at soon as it gets to interfacing to the transport, things start
looking bad. I would buy that this was upgaded in its lifetime, as you
suggest.
I can shoot some pictures if you like. You will then see what kind of a
mess these machines are!
One thing - there are three rather large sockets, somewhat rectangular,
about 2" by 3", on the backplane. They appear to be unused, but wired in.
They look like the serious type of connectors that IBM and the aerospace
industry sometimes used. Where these originally to interface to a PDP-5?
William Donzelli
aw288(a)osfn.org