5 Nov
2020
5 Nov
'20
2:34 p.m.
Hello, I have pulled together a website with links to resources and
information on SEL, or Systems Engineering Laboratories.
http://mnembler.com
SEL was a computer manufacturer in the 60s and 70s which later was acquired
by Gould and then Encore. They made many major innovations and were
instrumental in the success of the Apollo program.
The website is still a work in progress, but I did want to share it with
yall.
-Eric
6 Nov
6 Nov
2:37 p.m.
My memories of SEL beginnings are dusty. and rusty. I recall a bunch
of their systems being used in science related efforts, beecause of
the high IO capability. At the time, for NASA and others, it was the
ideal platform for data collection. Not a bad compute capability -
many other systems in that space could do compute efforts more
quickly, but the none could match data IO for years. iirc, this was in
both the 16 and 32 bit lines.
I alwo recall when some folks from DEC VAX et al efforts left and
joined SEL - yep there is some back story there.
bob
On Thu, Nov 5, 2020 at 2:35 PM Eric Moore via cctalk
<cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
Hello, I have pulled together a website with links to resources and
information on SEL, or Systems Engineering Laboratories.
http://mnembler.com
SEL was a computer manufacturer in the 60s and 70s which later was acquired
by Gould and then Encore. They made many major innovations and were
instrumental in the success of the Apollo program.
The website is still a work in progress, but I did want to share it with
yall.
-Eric
3:11 p.m.
I worked at Gould CSD in Urbana on the Powernode Unix kernel from '86-'88
and knew the machines were descendants of SEL machines, but that is about
it. The ECL based logic was named "firebreather" for a reason. They were the
fastest thing at the time. Being a computer company in Urbana Illinois, we all
joked about being where the HAL 9000 would eventually be born. It was my
first real job out of college, so I had a blast, right up until the company laid
off a large portion of our office in a single day. I think I still have a t-shirt
which says "Gould lost $300M and all I got was this lousy t-shirt". I
wasn't
on the list, but I left shortly thereafter. The people I worked with were all
top notch and I missed them after leaving.
--tom
On 11/6/20 1:37 PM, Bob Smith via cctalk wrote:
My memories of SEL beginnings are dusty. and rusty. I
recall a bunch
of their systems being used in science related efforts, beecause of
the high IO capability. At the time, for NASA and others, it was the
ideal platform for data collection. Not a bad compute capability -
many other systems in that space could do compute efforts more
quickly, but the none could match data IO for years. iirc, this was in
both the 16 and 32 bit lines.
I alwo recall when some folks from DEC VAX et al efforts left and
joined SEL - yep there is some back story there.
bob
On Thu, Nov 5, 2020 at 2:35 PM Eric Moore via cctalk
<cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
> Hello, I have pulled together a website with links to resources and
> information on SEL, or Systems Engineering Laboratories.
>
> http://mnembler.com
>
> SEL was a computer manufacturer in the 60s and 70s which later was acquired
> by Gould and then Encore. They made many major innovations and were
> instrumental in the success of the Apollo program.
>
> The website is still a work in progress, but I did want to share it with
> yall.
>
> -Eric
8 Nov
8 Nov
12:12 p.m.
On 11/6/20 12:11 PM, Tom Uban via cctalk wrote:
The ECL based logic was named "firebreather"
for a reason. They were the
fastest thing at the time.
If you look at the Gould advertising at the time, it was a picture of a
fire-breathing dragon toasting a DEC salesman running away.
4:34 p.m.
Al said
On 11/6/20 12:11 PM, Tom Uban via cctalk wrote:
The ad must have worked. Although our uni was the first in Australia to provide
11/780's
for teaching and research, in later years third year comp sci was moved to a new Gould
PN6080, because they got a good deal. Everyone just called it "the Gould".
It's so hard to find a picture of this machine, a while ago I found an eBay ad for
the
PowerNode series which was about all I have.
Steve.
The ECL based logic was named
"firebreather" for a reason. They were the
fastest thing at the time.
If you look at the Gould advertising at the time, it was a picture of a
fire-breathing dragon toasting a DEC salesman running away. 
10:02 p.m.
Eric:
Thanks for starting this. I've been doing little updates to the SEL
wikipedia pages recently, but a dedicated site would be great. I used the
machines heavily from 1977-1995, most of the 32/X series, as well as the
NP1. AFAIK, I was the first person to get C++ (cfront) working under
UTX-32.
Alas, I didn't save any literature from the period.
On Sun, Nov 8, 2020 at 4:34 PM Steve Malikoff via cctalk <
cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
Al said
On 11/6/20 12:11 PM, Tom Uban via cctalk wrote:
The ad must have worked. Although our uni was the first in Australia to
provide 11/780's
for teaching and research, in later years third year comp sci was moved to
a new Gould
PN6080, because they got a good deal. Everyone just called it "the Gould".
It's so hard to find a picture of this machine, a while ago I found an
eBay ad for the
PowerNode series which was about all I have.
Steve.
The ECL based logic was named
"firebreather" for a reason. They were the
fastest thing at the time.
If you look at the Gould advertising at the time, it was a picture of a
fire-breathing dragon toasting a DEC salesman running away.
10:51 p.m.
You are welcome! I have had a blast restoring and running my SEL 810A and
wanted to pull together some of what I had found, done, and helped with. It
is really just a placeholder for now until there is a critical mass of
interest.
The SEL 810 emulators are really awesome. Kgober's can run SEL 810A basic.
The SEL 810A gui I hope to soon improve, someone is helping me with an SVG
file of the front panel to replace the picture I am currently using.
I would like to someday acquire a 32/X or a powernode, but they are rare as
hens teeth apparently. I also would really like to find more info on the
ampex videofile.
-Eric
On Sun, Nov 8, 2020, 21:02 Tony Aiuto <tony.aiuto at gmail.com> wrote:
Eric:
Thanks for starting this. I've been doing little updates to the SEL
wikipedia pages recently, but a dedicated site would be great. I used the
machines heavily from 1977-1995, most of the 32/X series, as well as the
NP1. AFAIK, I was the first person to get C++ (cfront) working under
UTX-32.
Alas, I didn't save any literature from the period.
>
20 Nov
20 Nov
11:46 a.m.
I found some MPX -32 items this week. Rough scans here:
https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipOBnMkRJvzAsOCloK4NBQM9iDoROPk-QPXBANx…
I want to redo them to send to bitsavers.
On Sun, Nov 8, 2020 at 10:51 PM Eric Moore <mooreericnyc at gmail.com> wrote:
You are welcome! I have had a blast restoring and
running my SEL 810A and
wanted to pull together some of what I had found, done, and helped with. It
is really just a placeholder for now until there is a critical mass of
interest.
The SEL 810 emulators are really awesome. Kgober's can run SEL 810A basic.
The SEL 810A gui I hope to soon improve, someone is helping me with an SVG
file of the front panel to replace the picture I am currently using.
I would like to someday acquire a 32/X or a powernode, but they are rare
as hens teeth apparently. I also would really like to find more info on the
ampex videofile.
-Eric
On Sun, Nov 8, 2020, 21:02 Tony Aiuto <tony.aiuto at gmail.com> wrote:
> Eric:
>
> Thanks for starting this. I've been doing little updates to the SEL
> wikipedia pages recently, but a dedicated site would be great. I used the
> machines heavily from 1977-1995, most of the 32/X series, as well as the
> NP1. AFAIK, I was the first person to get C++ (cfront) working under
> UTX-32.
> Alas, I didn't save any literature from the period.
>
>
>>
12:09 p.m.
Oh wow! This is incredible to see, thank you!
http://vtda.org/docs/computing/SEL/SEL810ProgrammersReferenceCard(810A-810B…
Here is the equivalent 810A document I scanned.
-Eric
On Fri, Nov 20, 2020, 10:46 Tony Aiuto <tony.aiuto at gmail.com> wrote:
I found some MPX -32 items this week. Rough scans
here:
https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipOBnMkRJvzAsOCloK4NBQM9iDoROPk-QPXBANx…
I want to redo them to send to bitsavers.
On Sun, Nov 8, 2020 at 10:51 PM Eric Moore <mooreericnyc at gmail.com> wrote:
> You are welcome! I have had a blast restoring and running my SEL 810A and
> wanted to pull together some of what I had found, done, and helped with. It
> is really just a placeholder for now until there is a critical mass of
> interest.
>
> The SEL 810 emulators are really awesome. Kgober's can run SEL 810A
> basic. The SEL 810A gui I hope to soon improve, someone is helping me with
> an SVG file of the front panel to replace the picture I am currently using.
>
> I would like to someday acquire a 32/X or a powernode, but they are rare
> as hens teeth apparently. I also would really like to find more info on the
> ampex videofile.
>
> -Eric
>
> On Sun, Nov 8, 2020, 21:02 Tony Aiuto <tony.aiuto at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Eric:
>>
>> Thanks for starting this. I've been doing little updates to the SEL
>> wikipedia pages recently, but a dedicated site would be great. I used the
>> machines heavily from 1977-1995, most of the 32/X series, as well as the
>> NP1. AFAIK, I was the first person to get C++ (cfront) working under
>> UTX-32.
>> Alas, I didn't save any literature from the period.
>>
>>
>>>
12:54 p.m.
Cool. Same shade of blue.
On Fri, Nov 20, 2020 at 12:10 PM Eric Moore <mooreericnyc at gmail.com> wrote:
Oh wow! This is incredible to see, thank you!
http://vtda.org/docs/computing/SEL/SEL810ProgrammersReferenceCard(810A-810B…
Here is the equivalent 810A document I scanned.
-Eric
On Fri, Nov 20, 2020, 10:46 Tony Aiuto <tony.aiuto at gmail.com> wrote:
> I found some MPX -32 items this week. Rough scans here:
>
>
>
https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipOBnMkRJvzAsOCloK4NBQM9iDoROPk-QPXBANx…
>
> I want to redo them to send to bitsavers.
>
>
> On Sun, Nov 8, 2020 at 10:51 PM Eric Moore <mooreericnyc at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> You are welcome! I have had a blast restoring and running my SEL 810A
>> and wanted to pull together some of what I had found, done, and helped
>> with. It is really just a placeholder for now until there is a critical
>> mass of interest.
>>
>> The SEL 810 emulators are really awesome. Kgober's can run SEL 810A
>> basic. The SEL 810A gui I hope to soon improve, someone is helping me with
>> an SVG file of the front panel to replace the picture I am currently using.
>>
>> I would like to someday acquire a 32/X or a powernode, but they are rare
>> as hens teeth apparently. I also would really like to find more info on the
>> ampex videofile.
>>
>> -Eric
>>
>> On Sun, Nov 8, 2020, 21:02 Tony Aiuto <tony.aiuto at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Eric:
>>>
>>> Thanks for starting this. I've been doing little updates to the SEL
>>> wikipedia pages recently, but a dedicated site would be great. I used the
>>> machines heavily from 1977-1995, most of the 32/X series, as well as the
>>> NP1. AFAIK, I was the first person to get C++ (cfront) working under
>>> UTX-32.
>>> Alas, I didn't save any literature from the period.
>>>
>>>
>>>>
1380
days inactive
1395
days old
9 comments
6 participants
participants (6)
-
aek＠bitsavers.org -
bobsmithofd＠gmail.com -
mooreericnyc＠gmail.com -
steven＠malikoff.com -
tom＠figureeightbrewing.com -
tony.aiuto＠gmail.com