12 Mar
2016
12 Mar
'16
10:57 a.m.
and for horrible deep level maint. I would imagine they would be
useful....
they look like something too complex to let operations level people
diddle with...
but are these used with exactly WHICH Honeywell system? If we are
going to display them need to tell the right story in the museum.
Ed#
In a message dated 3/12/2016 7:44:50 A.M. US Mountain Standard Time,
dave.g4ugm at gmail.com writes:
The panels would be pretty much un-used Unlike 360 panels these were
hidden behind doors for most of the time. Assuming the work the same on a
Multics box as on a regular L66/DPS box the only time they were really used was
if you split a 2 x CPU system into 2 x 1 CPU system, or changed the memory
configuration from interleaved to non-interleaved. Pretty sure you could IPL
from the console.
Dave
From: COURYHOUSE at aol.com [mailto:COURYHOUSE at aol.com]
Sent: 12 March 2016 11:53
To: jws at jwsss.com
Cc: spacewar at gmail.com; dave.g4ugm at gmail.com; charles.unix.pro at gmail.com;
jwsmail at jwsss.com; cctalk at classiccmp.org; Kevin at RawFedDogs.net;
healyzh at aracnet.com; couryhouse at aol.com; couryhouse.smecc at gmail.com
Subject: Honneywell multics? from panels. the inline phots in this message
folks -smecc
ok sent to all the people cc on the multics stuff.. will not go though
on main listserv probably
here are some of the panels think there is more there are at least 2
of each type
one set will make display her at smecc museum in az the other set???
maybe someone want to wire into an emulator <<<grin!>>>
aside from a little dust and bad lighting these things look like
they were pretty unused thanks ed# _www.smecc.org_
(http://www.smecc.org/)
12 Mar
12 Mar
11:20 a.m.
In order to qualify as a GCOS-8 Operator I was required to know how to configure all of
these from memory, so I could configure and cold-boot the system from scratch. As a
Systems Analyst, I never touched them.
We had two DPS-8 mainframes. One was a single CPU Development system, that at night we
could do whatever we wanted with, for training. The other was the 4-CPU production
system.
Zane
On Mar 12, 2016, at 10:57 AM, COURYHOUSE at aol.com
wrote:
and for horrible deep level maint. I would imagine they would be useful....
they look like something too complex to let operations level people diddle with...
but are these used with exactly WHICH Honeywell system? If we are going to
display them need to tell the right story in the museum.
Ed#
In a message dated 3/12/2016 7:44:50 A.M. US Mountain Standard Time, dave.g4ugm at
gmail.com writes:
The panels would be pretty much un-used Unlike 360 panels these were hidden behind doors
for most of the time. Assuming the work the same on a Multics box as on a regular L66/DPS
box the only time they were really used was if you split a 2 x CPU system into 2 x 1 CPU
system, or changed the memory configuration from interleaved to non-interleaved. Pretty
sure you could IPL from the console.
Dave
From: COURYHOUSE at aol.com [mailto:COURYHOUSE at aol.com]
Sent: 12 March 2016 11:53
To: jws at jwsss.com
Cc: spacewar at gmail.com; dave.g4ugm at gmail.com; charles.unix.pro at gmail.com;
jwsmail at jwsss.com; cctalk at classiccmp.org; Kevin at RawFedDogs.net; healyzh at
aracnet.com; couryhouse at aol.com; couryhouse.smecc at gmail.com
Subject: Honneywell multics? from panels. the inline phots in this message folks -smecc
ok sent to all the people cc on the multics stuff.. will not go though on main
listserv probably
here are some of the panels think there is more there are at least 2 of each type
one set will make display her at smecc museum in az the other set??? maybe someone
want to wire into an emulator <<<grin!>>>
aside from a little dust and bad lighting these things look like they were pretty
unused thanks ed# www.smecc.org <http://www.smecc.org/>
11:21 a.m.
What is the provenance / source of the panels?
Mine came from an acquisition by Nick Allen from a collection in
Georgia. I believe there was a Multics installation in Atlanta they
were removed from.
The panels on the 6180 at USL were all inside side access panels for one
of the rows of hardware boxes. One box panel was usually exposed with
the door removed, but it could be closed up. There were problems which
required access to one of the panels frequently in operations, so it was
seldom closed.
We probably could get access to Dockmaster with some advance arrangement
and good will on the part of the CHM when they have time to arrange
access to the storage to which it was moved to see actual installed
panels.
I agree, the black panel has about the only interesting display.
+David Griffith
I might also suggest that once David Griffith finishes porting the PDP
10 Panda panel and has that design working and integrated that there may
be enough blink'n lights there to display a satisfying 6180 display on a
normal desktop case.
the advantage is that it is at least already 36 bits and has some of the
nonsense of having that bit count worked out already. I'd think we
(someone) could fork and add a second bank of lights, or use two of the
Panda usb devices to put out a lot of information about a 72 bit 6180.
His main problem now is with interfacing and coding PDP 10 assembly code
which is obviously not useful for re-purposing it for Multics use
anyway, and is internal to SIMh PDP10 emulation.
If a lot of people who are interested in blinking Multics Honeywell 6180
displays were interested it would contribute a lot to him selling out a
run of his board kits.
thanks
Jim
On 3/12/2016 10:57 AM, COURYHOUSE at aol.com wrote:
and for horrible deep level maint. I would
imagine they would
be useful....
they look like something too complex to let operations level
people diddle with...
but are these used with exactly WHICH Honeywell system? If we
are going to display them need to tell the right story in the museum.
Ed#
In a message dated 3/12/2016 7:44:50 A.M. US Mountain Standard Time,
dave.g4ugm at gmail.com writes:
The panels would be pretty much un-used Unlike 360 panels these
were hidden behind doors for most of the time. Assuming the work
the same on a Multics box as on a regular L66/DPS box the only
time they were really used was if you split a 2 x CPU system into
2 x 1 CPU system, or changed the memory configuration from
interleaved to non-interleaved. Pretty sure you could IPL from the
console.
Dave
*From:*COURYHOUSE at aol.com [mailto:COURYHOUSE at aol.com]
*Sent:* 12 March 2016 11:53
*To:* jws at jwsss.com
*Cc:* spacewar at gmail.com; dave.g4ugm at gmail.com;
charles.unix.pro at gmail.com; jwsmail at jwsss.com;
cctalk at classiccmp.org; Kevin at RawFedDogs.net; healyzh at aracnet.com;
couryhouse at aol.com; couryhouse.smecc at gmail.com
*Subject:* Honneywell multics? from panels. the inline phots in
this message folks -smecc
ok sent to all the people cc on the multics stuff.. will not go
though on main listserv probably
here are some of the panels think there is more there are at
least 2 of each type
one set will make display her at smecc museum in az the other
set??? maybe someone want to wire into an emulator <<<grin!>>>
aside from a little dust and bad lighting these things look
like they were pretty unused thanks ed# www.smecc.org
<http://www.smecc.org/>
11:38 a.m.
On Sat, Mar 12, 2016 at 11:21 AM, jim s <jwsmail at jwsss.com> wrote:
What is the provenance / source of the panels?
Mine came from an acquisition by Nick Allen from a collection in Georgia.
I believe there was a Multics installation in Atlanta they were removed
from.
Multics site: SCSI. Southern Company Services, Inc., Atlanta GA. Nuclear
fuel
inventory. Installed 1982.
(2 L68, 4 MSU0451, 4 MSU0501)
2 Level 68 CPUs, 4 MSU0451 disk drives (309 kg, removable pack, 156 Million
9 bit bytes), 2 MSU0501 disk drives (non-removable pack, 1101 Million 9 bit
bytes)
The panels on the 6180 at USL were all inside side access panels for one of
the rows of hardware boxes. One box panel was usually
exposed with the door
removed, but it could be closed up. There were problems which required
access to one of the panels frequently in operations, so it was seldom
closed.
We probably could get access to Dockmaster with some advance arrangement
and good will on the part of the CHM when they have time to arrange access
to the storage to which it was moved to see actual installed panels.
I agree, the black panel has about the only interesting display.
+David Griffith
I might also suggest that once David Griffith finishes porting the PDP 10
Panda panel and has that design working and integrated that there may be
enough blink'n lights there to display a satisfying 6180 display on a
normal desktop case.
the advantage is that it is at least already 36 bits and has some of the
nonsense of having that bit count worked out already. I'd think we
(someone) could fork and add a second bank of lights, or use two of the
Panda usb devices to put out a lot of information about a 72 bit 6180.
His main problem now is with interfacing and coding PDP 10 assembly code
which is obviously not useful for re-purposing it for Multics use anyway,
and is internal to SIMh PDP10 emulation.
If a lot of people who are interested in blinking Multics Honeywell 6180
displays were interested it would contribute a lot to him selling out a run
of his board kits.
I don't think there is that much interest, but I'll keep a weather eye
out.
Interfacing to beaglebone would be simpler for me, as I already have the
infrastructure in-place for my simulated display. (All of the needed data
is in a shared memory segment, a standalone program just scrapes the data
and sends it out.)
-- Charles
3:10 p.m.
On Sat, 12 Mar 2016, jim s wrote:
What is the provenance / source of the panels?
Mine came from an acquisition by Nick Allen from a collection in Georgia.? I
believe there was a Multics installation in Atlanta they were removed from.
The panels on the 6180 at USL were all inside side access panels for one of
the rows of hardware boxes. One box panel was usually exposed with the door
removed, but it could be closed up.? There were problems which required
access to one of the panels frequently in operations, so it was seldom
closed.
We probably could get access to Dockmaster with some advance arrangement and
good will on the part of the CHM when they have time to arrange access to
the storage to which? it was moved to see actual installed panels.?
I agree, the black panel has about the only interesting display.
+David Griffith
I might also suggest that once David Griffith finishes porting the PDP 10
Panda panel and has that design working and integrated that there may be
enough blink'n lights there to display a satisfying 6180 display on a normal
desktop case.
the advantage is that it is at least already 36 bits and has some of the
nonsense of having that bit count worked out already.? I'd think we
(someone) could fork and add a second bank of lights, or use two of the
Panda usb devices to put out a lot of information about a 72 bit 6180.
His main problem now is with interfacing and coding PDP 10 assembly code
which is obviously not useful for re-purposing it for Multics use anyway,
and is internal to SIMh PDP10 emulation.
If a lot of people who are interested in blinking Multics Honeywell 6180
displays were interested it would contribute a lot to him selling out a run
of his board kits.
Can I get a picture of the black panel you're referring to? I already
have a two-row variant of the Panda Display. It exists as a branch at
https://github.com/DavidGriffith/panda-display. The single-row one was
designed as a drop-in replacement for the parallel port version. The
layout of the double-row one can be more flexible. What sort of stuff
would like to see?
As-is, the firmware cannot support more than one Panda Display per host
machine. The means of doing this seems rather tricky. I suppose a pair
of daisy chain ports can be added to the board design.
Also, the interfacing work is with the klh10 emulator, not SIMh, because
the former already has hooks for running blinkenlights.
--
David Griffith
dave at 661.org
11:23 a.m.
On Sat, Mar 12, 2016 at 10:57 AM, <COURYHOUSE at aol.com> wrote:
and for horrible deep level maint. I would
imagine they would be
useful....
they look like something too complex to let operations level people
diddle with...
but are these used with exactly WHICH Honeywell system? If we
are going to display them need to tell the right story in the museum.
Ed#
If the registers A and Q are 36 bit, then it is from the GE-600 line, which
over time included the 615, 625, 635, 645, 655. GE sold the line off to
Honeywell where it became the Honeywell 6000 series: 6025, 6030, 6040,
6050, 6070, 6080, 6180. After Honeywell merged the line with Bull, the
machines were named (at various times) Level 66, Level68, DPS-8, DPS-8M,
DPS-88, DPS-90, DPS-9000.
So 'GE-600 series' is a safe bet.
If one of the panels has a section labeled 'Appending Unit', then it was a
Multics machine, GE-645, DPS-8M, or (I think) 6040/6080/6180.
If you want a better estimate, I can ask some of the Multicians to look at
the pictures; or, if you know what site the panels came from, there exists
pretty good documentation about what was at which sites.
-- Charles
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charles.unix.pro＠gmail.com -
COURYHOUSE＠aol.com -
dave＠661.org -
healyzh＠aracnet.com -
jwsmail＠jwsss.com