Unix tools, Bill Webb, UBC, TRIUMF

[Shoppa, Tim]

I recovered several pieces of Unix media – all of which I think made it into TUHS/PUPS collection - at UBC in the mid-1990’s while I was working at TRIUMF.

Those Unix disks and tapes came from a SERF sale (Surplus Equipment Recycling Facility) on UBC main campus, not from TRIUMF. Bill Webb was a common thread for Unix use in the biology department at UBC.

TRIUMF extensively used Data General Nova, then Eclipse (both 16 and 32 bit), computers from opening through the 1990’s for both cyclotron control systems and data acquisition for experiments.  They also had a fair number of PDP-11’s and VAXen running RSX-11, RT-11, and VMS. I myself had an Alpha workstation on my desk for the two users I was at TRIUMF.

One of my favorite connections between TRIUMF and UBC, was the underground pneumatic tube used to rapidly carry short lived isotopes produced in the cyclotron to the main campus for biology and medical uses. It should not come as a surprise to anyone that I still work in moving things and people through underground tunnels 😊

Tim N3QE