Sold on eBay: Convergent Technologies S/50 a.k.a. Unix PC, AT&T 3B1 Unix Workstation

[AJ Palmgren]

Dwight, thanks for sharing all of this this!  Great memory, and fantastic
ingenuity, to say the least!

Did it happen to be one of these older-style Convergent AWS machines?

http://mightyframe.blogspot.com/2017/03/convergent-technologies-workstation.html

On Mon, Jan 15, 2018 at 6:16 AM, dwight <dkelvey at hotmail.com> wrote:

> Years ago, we used one of the Convergent machines. I recall playing rats
> on it. It had a green screen. It was a 8086 processor and had some Multibus
> slots in it.
>
> I recall the SA8000 hard disk. It would fail after 20 minutes or so. We
> sent is back to Shugart for warranty  repair with a complete description of
> how it needed to run for some time before it failed.
>
> They sent it back still broken. I when to Shugart with the drive and found
> out that they never even looked at the return sheet they had me fill out.
> They just replaced the drive belt tested it for 2 minutes and sent it back.
>
> I couldn't wait for them to not fix it again. I bought a replacement
> transistor for the stepper drive and fixed it my self.
>
> We used them because of the bus slots on the back. I made a DC servo
> controller to run an XY table.
>
> I had an early version of fig Forth running on it to debug my hardware.
>
> Dwight
>
>
> ------------------------------
> *From:* cctalk <cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org> on behalf of AJ Palmgren
> via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
> *Sent:* Sunday, January 14, 2018 6:05:55 PM
> *To:* Todd Goodman
> *Cc:* General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts
> *Subject:* Re: Sold on eBay: Convergent Technologies S/50 a.k.a. Unix PC,
> AT&T 3B1 Unix Workstation
>
> Todd, thanks so much for sharing, and I'm thrilled to know that a member of
> this community is where it's going.
>
> May I ask, what are your plans for archival of the included disks and
> manuals, if any?
>
> I'd also be quite curious to see if there are any internal circuit
> differences between that machine and a "regular AT&T 3b1.  If you ever open
> it up, I'd love to see/hear about that.
>
> I've put a fair amount of effort into preserving Convergent-branded OS and
> programs, particularly from this era, solely out of personal interest.
> Mostly for the MightyFrame, but my journey had to start with the AT&T UNIX
> PC first, as that had the larger "still available" user group for learning
> & support before I could revers-engineer how to get a MightyFrame to boot.
>
> Anyway, I would really love to see those software/manual sets be preserved
> in a bitsavers.org / archive.org fashion, and if there is anything that I
> might be able to do to assist in that effort, I'd love to volunteer.
>
> My site for preserving this area of Convergent software and equipment is at
> http://MightyFrame.com
>
> Please let me know how I might help, in any way.
>
> Thanks so much!
> -AJ
>
> On Sun, Jan 14, 2018 at 8:26 AM, Todd Goodman <tsg at bonedaddy.net> wrote:
>
> > Hi AJ (and list),
> >
> > I got that one.
> >
> > Todd
> >
> >
> > On 1/13/2018 10:02 PM, AJ Palmgren via cctalk wrote:
> >
> >> I'm just wondering if anybody here did (or knows who) bought this one.
> >>
> >> http://ebay.to/2DaRr13
> >>
> >> Even though these were all manufactured by Convergent Technologies, this
> >> one is actually BRANDED by Convergent, as their model S/50.
> >>
> >> And there's software included here. I tried to buy myself, but just
> missed
> >> it.
> >>
> >> I'd really like to connect with the buyer here, to see if we can do a
> more
> >> expansive documentation project on this machine, as well as an archival
> of
> >> the software that was included.
> >>
> >> As far as I know, this is the only Convergent S/50 I've ever seen that
> has
> >> survived, especially with all the CONVERGENT software and manuals (vs
> the
> >> AT&T ones)!
> >>
> >> Thanks!
> >>
> >> -AJ
> >> http://MightyFrame.com
> >>
> >
> >
>
>
> --
>
> Thanks,
> AJ Palmgren
> http://fb.me/SelmaTrainWreck
> http://SelmaTrainWreck.blogspot.com
> https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100010931314283
> https://www.linkedin.com/in/aj-palmgren-4a085516/
>



-- 

Thanks,
AJ Palmgren
http://fb.me/SelmaTrainWreck
http://SelmaTrainWreck.blogspot.com
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100010931314283
https://www.linkedin.com/in/aj-palmgren-4a085516/