Until someone comes up with hard evidence that BCM had one then scrapped it - something like photographic evidence of the PDP-6 in the collection, inclusion in an official inventory (and then not), or otherwise - I discount it as just a story. Nearly everyone I have talked to about it is very insistent about BCM scrapping a PDP-6, but the sources of their information is always someone else with the same unsupported and often inconsistent facts. Basically, the whole story has too many of the red flags that make up a good urban legend. When was this? -- Will

--- William Donzelli <wdonzelli at gmail.com> wrote: I have in my possession a PDP-6 module purchased by myself at the BCM museum store in 1989. It may have come from spares rather than being stripped from a machine in the collection, but it was a very large double-height, double-width system module of the type that I believe was only used on the PDP-6, and it was described as a PDP-6 board when I bought it. I find it highly suspicious that Philco and CDC 6600-style modules were also on sale. I have several modules purchased at the same time that look identical to those in the Philco on display now at CHM, formerly at BCM. The CHM's machine is conspicuously missing large numbers of modules, as in an entire backplane stripped clean. Not that this proves anything, but I left after that visit to BCM in 1989 with the distinct impression that machines from the collection had been stripped for souvenirs. The BCM seemed to be much more concerned with education, including with respect to contemporary machines at the time, rather than historical preservation and scholarship. Despite this, Gwen was there when I visited, and, although I had not met her previously, she saw me and apparently detected that I was not all that interested in the "kiddie stuff" and took me into the back storage area and showed me the "good stuff". She certainly appreciated the historical machines, and was like an excited kid showing it off. It is hard to imagine machines being stripped or scrapped on her watch. --Bill