11 Jan
1998
11 Jan
'98
8:51 a.m.
<What I meant by personal computer was computers mass produced for the hom
<market. But the rest is still good. What was the first computer to enter
<home (coming from the industry)?
That would be:
First to the home market Altair 8800
first to be a complete system Sphere-1
first successful market venture Apple-II june-77
first marketed through a common outlet TRS-80 aug-77
Allison
11 Jan
11 Jan
11:49 a.m.
On Sun, 11 Jan 1998, Allison J Parent wrote:
<What I meant by personal computer was computers
mass produced for the hom
<market. But the rest is still good. What was the first computer to enter
<home (coming from the industry)?
first successful market venture Apple-II june-77
IIRC, that was April 77 (at the west coast computer faire.)
You might also want to add the PET 2001 to this list... also April 77 at
the WCCF.
Allison
ttfn
srw
2:50 p.m.
New subject: PDP-8/Is Successfully Retrieved!!!
I now have in my possession three PDP-8/Is (only around 4000 were
produced) from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri! They are in
reasonably crusty condition, having been stored in a garage for 10 years
or more, but appear to be all there.
One has no peripherals, one has a DecTape drive and another has the
high-speed paper tape reader. The machine with the DecTape, which is
apparently a Posibus machine, has a custom interface built out of DEC
Building Blocks modules...ALOT of them and is very nifty.
I expect restoration to occupy months or years but is, nevertheless,
quite probable.
In addition, I received a PDP-11/34 without programmers console (just the
plain boot switch console) with an RK05f and an RK05j. It is
tremendously heavy and my assistant and I were nearly (quite literally)
crushed in our attempts to get it on the truck. Our spotter did not
inform of us a dip in the concrete and it tipped backward on us with only
our spotter giving us the necessary force, at the last moment, to lift it
back up. It was highly unpleasant.
I received several boxes of flip-chips, manuals (LOTS of manuals), tech
sheets, blank paper tape still in the box and other items that I haven't
had an opportunity to explore. The boxes were stored in a basement so
there's a fair amount of water damage and a LOVELY musty odor (woo hoo). =-)
I also received an Teletype ASR-33, for which I have manuals fortunately,
in fairly crustated condition. Someone left a tape in the mechanism and,
through the years of being stored in a basement, it has become yellowed,
brittle and has adhered to the unit.
Finally, I received an Apple LISA with the
external hard drive, which
apparently has some electronic problems in the monitor but sound fixable.
I'll have pictures and information on the website at
http://www.retrocomputing.com as soon as I get them unloaded and situated.
Anthony Clifton - Wirehead
1:43 p.m.
New subject: PDP-8/Is Successfully Retrieved!!!
But what about the LINC? Did you see it?
William Donzelli
william(a)ans.net
12 Jan
12 Jan
3:23 a.m.
New subject: PDP-8/Is Successfully Retrieved!!!
Yes I did. It's an actual customer built LINC. It's in two or three
pieces currently but he wanted to keep it. I tried but couldn't talk him
out of it. Don't blame him.
Anthony Clifton - Wirehead
On Sun, 11 Jan 1998, William Donzelli wrote:
But what about the LINC? Did you see it?
William Donzelli
william(a)ans.net
11 Jan
11 Jan
4:51 p.m.
New subject: PDP-8/Is Successfully Retrieved!!!
Finally, I received an Apple LISA with the
external hard drive, which
apparently has some electronic problems in the monitor but sound fixable.
This sounds like the Lisa 2/5, better open it up and see about removing the
battery if it is, hope it doesn't have any problems from a leaky battery.
I got mine just before the battery totally destroyed the boards, and I was
able to clean up the mess.
Zane
| Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Adminstrator |
| healyzh(a)ix.netcom.com (primary) | Linux Enthusiast |
| healyzh(a)holonet.net (alternate) | Classic Computer Collector |
+----------------------------------+----------------------------+
| For Empire of the Petal Throne and Traveller Role Playing, |
| see http://www.dragonfire.net/~healyzh/ |
| For the collecting of Classic Computers with info on them. |
| see http://www.dragonfire.net/~healyzh/museum.html |
12 Jan
12 Jan
6:03 a.m.
New subject: PDP-8/Is Successfully Retrieved!!!
Finally, I
received an Apple LISA with the
external hard drive, which
apparently has some electronic problems in the monitor but sound fixable.
This sounds like the Lisa 2/5, better open it up and see about removing the
battery if it is, hope it doesn't have any problems from a leaky battery.
I got mine just before the battery totally destroyed the boards, and I was
able to clean up the mess.
2:38 p.m.
New subject: PDP-11/84 Successfully Retrieved!!!!
The 11/84 is now waiting to enter the garage where it will be stripped of
unnecessary weight before being moved to the basement. I was out working
on it and nearly froze my butt off. I tried putting off the retrieval
but couldn't convince the previous owners to delay. They did suggest
that they might give me or sell me cheaply a MicroVax II and a TS-05 tape
drive in the near future.
I'll never be bored again.
Anthony Clifton - Wirehead
3:13 p.m.
New subject: PDP-8/Is Successfully Retrieved!!!
This sounds
like the Lisa 2/5, better open it up and see about removing the
battery if it is, hope it doesn't have any problems from a leaky battery.
I got mine just before the battery totally destroyed the boards, and I was
able to clean up the mess.
Actually, it was sitting next to me on the seat in the truck and, at a
stoplight, I opened it up. The batteries look ok so I'll replace them
immediately. 
3:50 p.m.
New subject: Lisa System Date
At 18:13 1/12/98 -0800, Zane wrote:
....IIRC about all [the battery] does is keep the date
and time, but then you
can never again have a valid date anyway since 1995 is long gone :^) And
people worry about the year 2000 problem, that's how you tell that they
don't own a Lisa :^)
Huh? You mean 1995 was the last year a Lisa's sysclock could register?
How, i. e. from when and with what ticks, was the clock set up?
TIA,
__________________________________________
Kip Crosby engine(a)chac.org
http://www.chac.org/index.html
Computer History Association of California
7:40 p.m.
New subject: Lisa System Date
Kip Crosby wrote:
Huh? You mean 1995 was the last year a Lisa's
sysclock could register?
How, i. e. from when and with what ticks, was the clock set up?
Yeah, pretty amazing isn't it. Now that's what I call planned obsolecence!
My Lisa 2/5 works great once I figured out in what order to turn everything
on. One slight problem the date will be wrong, the whole time I own it.
I don't know the technical reasons behind it, and I may be off +/- a year
in the 1995 bit. Really shocked me when I got it and started researching
the computer. Now I kind of consider it a cool little fact. Doesn't
really cause any problems, and I'm told none of the software will print out
reports with the wrong date because of it.
Zane
| Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Adminstrator |
| healyzh(a)ix.netcom.com (primary) | Linux Enthusiast |
| healyzh(a)holonet.net (alternate) | Classic Computer Collector |
+----------------------------------+----------------------------+
| For Empire of the Petal Throne and Traveller Role Playing, |
| see http://www.dragonfire.net/~healyzh/ |
| For the collecting of Classic Computers with info on them. |
| see http://www.dragonfire.net/~healyzh/museum.html |
3:36 p.m.
New subject: PDP-8/Is Successfully Retrieved!!!
And now...ladies and gentleman...the contents of the first 3 boxes from
the PDP-8/i acquisition....drum roll please....
Two switch covers from ASR-33s with clear buttons labelled REL., UNLOCK,
B.SP. and LOCK "ON".
A flip chip labelled M706.
2 Applied Magnetics Corp. disk drive heads in the box.
Digital spares PN 12-09169-00 (10/21/82) 10 pcs (2 bags) containing
lights like in the PDP-8 front panel.
Several flip chips M633, R107, W998, M206, M102, M112, another M633,
A613, another M206, another M102, M100, and A704.
Several boxes of paper tape containing assorted programs for the PDP-8
(apparently bug free...I can't stand dead icky bugs or their remains).
Two blue plastic boxes containing OS/8 and all the tools etc that DEC
shipped like PAL, etc.
More documentation for the ASR33. Woo hoo! =-)
And much MUCH more! I won't bother you with the details...just wanted to
share some of the fun.
Anthony Clifton - Wirehead
On Sun, 11 Jan 1998, Wirehead Prime wrote:
I now have in my possession three PDP-8/Is (only around 4000 were
produced) from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri! They are in
reasonably crusty condition, having been stored in a garage for 10 years
or more, but appear to be all there.
One has no peripherals, one has a DecTape drive and another has the
high-speed paper tape reader. The machine with the DecTape, which is
apparently a Posibus machine, has a custom interface built out of DEC
Building Blocks modules...ALOT of them and is very nifty.
I expect restoration to occupy months or years but is, nevertheless,
quite probable.
In addition, I received a PDP-11/34 without programmers console (just the
plain boot switch console) with an RK05f and an RK05j. It is
tremendously heavy and my assistant and I were nearly (quite literally)
crushed in our attempts to get it on the truck. Our spotter did not
inform of us a dip in the concrete and it tipped backward on us with only
our spotter giving us the necessary force, at the last moment, to lift it
back up. It was highly unpleasant.
I received several boxes of flip-chips, manuals (LOTS of manuals), tech
sheets, blank paper tape still in the box and other items that I haven't
had an opportunity to explore. The boxes were stored in a basement so
there's a fair amount of water damage and a LOVELY musty odor (woo hoo). =-)
I also received an Teletype ASR-33, for which I have manuals fortunately,
in fairly crustated condition. Someone left a tape in the mechanism and,
through the years of being stored in a basement, it has become yellowed,
brittle and has adhered to the unit.
Finally, I received an Apple LISA with the
external hard drive, which
apparently has some electronic problems in the monitor but sound fixable.
I'll have pictures and information on the website at
http://www.retrocomputing.com as soon as I get them unloaded and situated.
Anthony Clifton - Wirehead
9669
days inactive
9671
days old
11 comments
6 participants
participants (6)
-
allisonp＠world.std.com -
engine＠chac.org -
healyzh＠ix.netcom.com -
scott＠saskatoon.com -
william＠ans.net -
wirehead＠retrocomputing.com