Date: Wed, 26 Nov 2003 18:28:30 -0500 Subject: Re: One That Got Away (was: Woohoo! Another DEC score!) I've got a couple of those... a Connection Machine CM-200, and a pdp-12 :-( The CM-200: In the early 1990s, I was in Edinburgh, trying to track down some pdps. I ended up at the Edinburgh Parallel Computing Centre (EPCC), where I found a pdp-11/45, just decommisioned, which had been running as a communications front end. I also found the most impressive computer I had (and have) ever seen: a Connection Machine CM-200, flashing all its lights at me in a very beguiling fashion! I determined there and then that I would try, in a few years when such machines were being retired, to secure one for the Corestore. I let around five years go by, not realising just how long a period that is in high-performance computing, before I spoke to the people in Edinburgh again: 'oh I'm sorry, we finished with that machine six months ago - it was carted off for scrap. We kept a few of the boards as souvenirs...'!!! The pdp-12: In 1993 I collected a pdp-12 from a medical research place. At the time I removed it, there were still two other pdp-12s on site there, one complete and in use, the other dismantled for spares. One machine remained in intermittant use until at least 2001! I had been promised the remaining equipment when it was finally surplus to requirements, and telephoned the place every few months, always getting the reply ' it will be a few more months at least'... then came the fatefull day in early 2002 when I called and heard 'oh sorry we forgot about you - we got rid of it all a couple of months ago, it all went to an old computer enthusiast who asked us for it!' Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr. At least the -12 *did* get saved... Mike http://www.corestore.org _________________________________________________________________ Share holiday photos without swamping your Inbox. Get MSN Extra Storage now! http://join.msn.com/?PAGE=features/es