It probably is/was a computer with I/O boards to connect to various instruments. I'm not sure what the 2293 did, but GenRad had many standard and custom instruments they made over many decades. Very likely you'll find a Q-bus backplane and DEC cards inside. Tim.

Evidently you haven't been following my PDP-8 Saga of the last couple of weeks. I just helped a GenRad service guy clean out his inventory of DEC equipment. I got a PDP-8A out of the deal and LOADS of cards, manuals, docs and all manner of DEC related goodies. I don't know anything about the Genrad 2293 specificly but GenRad used a LOT of DEC computers to operate their test stations. Here's a picture of one built around a PDP-8A <http://www.classiccmp.org/hp/pdp-8/>. I've also seen them use 11/23s, 11/34 and 11/44. I've seen those in person but I'm sure there were others that I never saw. One of the coolest DEC goodies that I have is a small GenRad box about 9" square and 12" deep. It has a HH 8" floppy drive in it and I thought that it was just an external disk drive when I got it but I opened it up and found that it was a complete PDP-11/23 along with a hard drive and floppy drive. It has RSX-11M installed on the hard drive. But too answer your question, it's almost certain that what you saw has a DEC computer inside. Joe At 04:25 PM 7/19/05 -0400, you wrote: