G'day Rob -
Ooops... I think unscrewing the core mat cover voids the DG warrantee!
Sounds like 16KW DG Nova boards, and I would be glad to try to resurrect
them for possible use in a Nova 2, Nova 1200 or some other such system. Do
they appear to be in good mechanical shape; what about any obvious
electric/electronic damage...?
Bruce Ray
bkr(a)WildHareComputers.com
Novas are Forever... [
www.SimuLogics.com, or now
www.NovasAreForever.com]
----- Original Message -----
From: "Rob Lion" <rnlion(a)its.caltech.edu>
To: <classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org>
Sent: Thursday, August 02, 2001 1:03 AM
Subject: Data General Nova memory boards
In the daily dumpster rounds today, I ran across a
pair of large boards,
about 15" square, each labeled "DGC Nova2 16K memory, (c)1973 by Data
General Corp". They're designed to plug into a backplane with a pair of
cardedge connectors, 100 pins each. (This is, I'm sure, a well-known bus,
but not well-known to me. :-) )
The two boards are essentially identical, I think; the layout looks the
same
but one has a layer of green enamel over the traces
and the other leaves
them exposed. The center of the board is taken up by a slightly smaller
board, about 10"x12", labeled "DGC Nova 16K memory stack". An
aluminum
panel
unscrews to unfold from this board, revealing a large
array of (I think)
core memory -- correct me if I'm wrong on this. Whatever it is, a huge
amount of incredibly tiny red and green wires woven together; quite
beautiful in its way. The traces on the PCBs are quite pretty as well,
artistically curving along their paths. Nothing at all like the autorouted
boards you see today.
Anyway, rambling aside, I don't really have any use for these boards. They
both have pricetags on them saying $9.95, but I have no idea from when or
where. So if anyone wants them for the price of shipping or wants to pick
them up from Pasadena, CA, just let me know; I'll keep them around for a
few
weeks at least. Otherwise, maybe I'll
(non-destructively) hang them on the
wall.
-Rob
-----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK-----
Version: 3.12
GAT/E d- s:- a--- C++(++++) ULS+ P+ L+ E- W++
N+(++) o K w+++ O- M- V- PS+(+++) PE--(+) Y+
PGP t- 5- X+ R- tv b++ DI++ D++ G++ e h+ r- y
------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------