Fairly Extensive Singer/Friden "System Ten" Computer System for Rescue

[Paul Anderson]

Hi Rick,

I'm 2 or 3 hours from there, have have had too mary back surgeries and
replacement parts to help a lot, but depending on timing i might be able to
help some. It's possible I could even drive a truckload out east. We are
thinking of going out in Oct if you find a home out there. Keep me in the
loop.

Who knows, if someone picks up the expenses, we could go earlier or maybe
out west.

Thanks, Paul

On Wed, Aug 8, 2018 at 9:13 PM, Rick Bensene via cctalk <
cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:

> Through my Old Calculator Museum website, I have been contacted by a
> gentleman that has a fairly substantial Singer/Friden
> System 10 that is located in a building that the business wants to clear
> out.
>
> The computer system is slated to end up in a dumpster if it isn't
> rescued.
>
> The place the machine was stored is indoors, in an office-like space in
> a larger warehouse style building.  The space was not temperature
> controlled, but there are no signs of water damage or serious corrosion.
> Some critters (probably mice) have been inside the cabinets of the
> system, but the contact said that there were no obvious signs that they
> chewed anything up.  The system is very dusty (it was not covered), and
> it appears that some panels on the cabinets may have been removed, but
> are probably with the system.
> Some stuff appears to be partly disassembled.  There also might be some
> spare parts, e.g., circuit boards.
>
> The system consists of a CPU, probably a Model 20, two Model 80 Display
> Terminals, a line printer of some sort, and two Mode 40 disk-pack (aka
> dishwasher-sized) disk drives.   There are quite a few Model 41 disk
> packs there..   There also appears to be some documentation.  There may
> also be some kind of magtape drive with the system, as there is a rack
> full of 7 or 9-track tapes hanging in it.  Not sure if these are
> included with the system, though.
>
> Here is a link to some photos of the system:
>
> http://pail.bensene.com/Singer10
>
> Beware that the web host does not have much upstream bandwidth, and the
> photos are pretty high resolution, so downloading them may take some
> time.  Most of the photos are between 1.8 and 2.5 megabytes in size.
>
> there is some documentation on the Singer System Ten up on Bitsavers at
> http://bitsavers.org/pdf/singer/systemTen .  Some of the documentation
> there is for the equipment that is available.
>
> These systems aren't very common, and there likely aren't all that many
> of them left in existence.  Singer sold a lot of these systems into
> retail outlets as part of one of the first online Point-of-Sale systems.
> One notable account was Sears and Roebuck, who installed a huge
> networked (via Modem) environment using System Ten machines in stores to
> run Point-of-Sale systems, with modem links to larger systems that
> collected the information, and usually fed it to even larger systems
> (e.g., IBM mainframe) for inventory management, bookkeeping, and other
> large corporate-level reporting/management systems.      However, the
> system aged quickly, as other competitors came onto the Point-of-Sale
> scene very quickly, with systems that were less expensive, more
> reliable, and more easily maintained.  Many of the Singer systems in
> large retailers were replaced within a few years of being put into
> service.  There was little market for "used" systems, so most all of
> them taken out of service went for scrap.
>
> The System 10 CPU was pretty unique in that it had "hardware"-based
> timesharing.   The system managed time-slicing between "partitions" in
> main memory (magnetic core) with hardware that provided a fixed
> timeslice to each partition, switching to the next either when the
> time-slice  ran out, or certain instructions (e.g., I/O) were executed
> that would trigger an immediate context switch. The system had hardware
> protection for the partitions to isolate the partitions from each other,
> allowing them to run independently.  There was a shared and a read-only
> system partition which could facilitate inter-partition communications
> and management functions.
> Pretty cool for a design done in the late '60's.
>
> It'd be a real shame for this system to end up in the trash, which is
> exactly where it will go if a home can't be found for it relatively soon
> (e.g., next couple of weeks).
>
> The system is located in West Chicago, IL.
>
> It's all pretty sizable, so, you'd probably need a small
> commercial-style moving van with a lift-gate (the stuff is likely quite
> heavy, especially the disk drives) to haul it.  You would also probably
> need a heavy-duty hand-truck or two, and some strong straps.   You'd
> need some muscle, too.  I suspect it'd be more than a 1-man job.
>
> My  contact wants it out of there.  You just have to come get it and
> haul it away.
>
> If you have any serious interest in rescuing this system, drop me an
> Email, and I'll put you in touch with my contact.
>
> Hopefully someone out there can give this machine a new home.
> Email:  rickb .at. bensene .dot. com
>
>
> Rick Bensene
> The Old Calculator Museum
> http://oldcalculatormuseum.com
>
>
>
>