Today I worked with Tony from about 10:45am to 3:30, and then with Steve A. from 4:00 to 8:30. We three got a lot of difficult and satisfying work done: - Moved four pallets of Univac gear into the museum (one CPU, one tape rack, one I/O console (paper tape + Model 25 TTY), and two peripheral racks. (Duane C. and Bill Drom. know the model numbers better than I do.) We put all this where it'll go long-term in the center aisle. Photo (with apologies for the strange camera angle: http://vcfed.org/evan/univac.jpg). We're going to cover the exposed parts of the pallets with black fabric. - Moved the Cray YMP-EK and StorageTek 9710 tape library into the museum. We put them in the middle of the "history of the present" wall. (That's where we will show dozens of pictures of recently obsoleted household products, along with the Cray and the tape library, all under a big sign: "Everything on this wall now fits in your pocket." It is a bit of an exaggeration for the 9710. Says at http://www.iscgroupllc.com/supported-equipment/tape-libraries/stk-sun-oracle... that the library holds up to 1.4TB, and I don't know of any smartphone with such storage capacity. Anyway, nobody (LOL, other than us) will be looking up the library maximum theoretical specifications. It makes the point very nicely that 1990s supercomputing performance and storage capacity now are (more or less) in an iPhone. A nice touch: the library plugs into an ordinary 110V outlet and fires up just fine. I'm hoping we could run some demos and let people see the robot moving around. Photo: http://vcfed.org/evan/cray_storagetek.jpg. Special thanks to Dan Jacob's son DJ for helping move the Cray (turns out the best way is to remove the front cover and then you can slide a pallet jack under it.) - We began putting microcomputers on shelving units. Got through about a quarter of them. Some of them didn't fit quite the way we hoped and so we had to make some tough decisions. For example, the Epson QX-10 isn't good atop the Lisa cart, because it's just a flat beige box and mostly disappears behind the upper slanted shelf's front lip. Another example is the TDL Xitan which did not fit where intended. Some of these systems will go into the Computer of the Month queue... there is no shortage! We also realized that even some videogame consoles can go in that queue, such as Intellivision and others which have computer-like aspects. - We took in some donations. Don brought over some IBM gear including an AS/400 and a desk-side System/36. An outside person brought us a pair of Xerox 820s, a Cosmac, and a motherlode of Xerox 1800 gear. The 1800 is uber-rare -- it was an early laptop made by Sunrise Systems, canceled before it ever went on sale to the public, and (I think) the never-sold stock was acquired by some middle company. That company released some into the wild. - Related news: More work has been done on the double door. All of the holes in the wall/ceiling, on the hallway side and inside the room, have been patched. The trim pieces were all re-installed.
"Everything on this wall now fits in your pocket." It is a bit of an exaggeration for the 9710. Says at http://www.iscgroupllc.com/supported-equipment/tape-libraries/stk-sun-oracle... that the library holds up to 1.4TB
Hmm... it says at http://www.unylogix.com/data_storage/tapes_jukebox/storagetek/9710_sp.html that the library can hold up to 41.2TB of compressed data. That's a whole lot more than the other site said. It also means we'd be VERY inaccurate displaying the library as something that now could "fit in your pocket". Anyone have constructive ideas for how we can display this artifact within the context of our new exhibits? (There's no space for a separate exhibit of just storage evolution.)
On Mar 6, 2016, at 11:34 PM, Evan Koblentz via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote:
"Everything on this wall now fits in your pocket." It is a bit of an exaggeration for the 9710. Says at http://www.iscgroupllc.com/supported-equipment/tape-libraries/stk-sun-oracle... that the library holds up to 1.4TB
Hmm... it says at http://www.unylogix.com/data_storage/tapes_jukebox/storagetek/9710_sp.html that the library can hold up to 41.2TB of compressed data. That's a whole lot more than the other site said. It also means we'd be VERY inaccurate displaying the library as something that now could "fit in your pocket".
Anyone have constructive ideas for how we can display this artifact within the context of our new exhibits? (There's no space for a separate exhibit of just storage evolution.)
Actually if you think about the fact that most people are now storing data in the cloud. It does fit in the theme of the "fit in your pocket". People routinely search Wikipedia and stuff which is like a library of terabytes and petabytes of data from their phones instead of keeping the data local.
-----Original Message----- From: Evan Koblentz via vcf-midatlantic Sent: Sunday, March 06, 2016 11:02 PM To: vcf-midatlantic Cc: Evan Koblentz Subject: [vcf-midatlantic] museum move report
Today I worked with Tony from about 10:45am to 3:30, and then with Steve A. from 4:00 to 8:30.
We three got a lot of difficult and satisfying work done:
- Moved four pallets of Univac gear into the museum (one CPU, one tape rack, one I/O console (paper tape + Model 25 TTY), and two peripheral racks. (Duane C. and Bill Drom. know the model numbers better than I
Evan, Thanks for the update. Looks like things are coming together. Left to Right they are: 1. UNIVAC 1219B Computer, aka Mk. 152 Digital Fire Control Computer, aka CP-848 2. UNIVAC 1540 Mag Tape, aka Mk. 19 Digital Data Recorder, aka RD-294 3. Ocean Tech Mk.75 Signal Data Converter (A/D and D/A, synchro, scaled voltage, relay etc. ) 4. Digital switching unit that Johns Hopkins made to switch I/O channels Most likely a one of a kind 5. UNIVAC 1532 I/O Console, aka MK 77 I/O console, aka OA-7984 I would have put the 1532 I/O to the left of the computer to keep all the UNIVAC equipment together. The model 35 (not 25) TTY is part of the I/O console The I/O console contains a model BRPE-11 Teletype punch and Digitronics 2500 paper tape reader, manuals for both are on Bitsavers. Duane
- Moved four pallets of Univac gear into the museum (one CPU, one tape rack, one I/O console (paper tape + Model 25 TTY), and two peripheral racks. (Duane C. and Bill Drom. know the model numbers better than I
Evan,
Thanks for the update. Looks like things are coming together.
Left to Right they are:
1. UNIVAC 1219B Computer, aka Mk. 152 Digital Fire Control Computer, aka CP-848 2. UNIVAC 1540 Mag Tape, aka Mk. 19 Digital Data Recorder, aka RD-294 3. Ocean Tech Mk.75 Signal Data Converter (A/D and D/A, synchro, scaled voltage, relay etc. ) 4. Digital switching unit that Johns Hopkins made to switch I/O channels Most likely a one of a kind 5. UNIVAC 1532 I/O Console, aka MK 77 I/O console, aka OA-7984
The model 35 (not 25) TTY is part of the I/O console
The I/O console contains a model BRPE-11 Teletype punch and Digitronics 2500 paper tape reader, manuals for both are on Bitsavers.
Thank you Duane.
I would have put the 1532 I/O to the left of the computer to keep all the UNIVAC equipment together.
Thinking aloud: Putting the console first might look better anyhow.
participants (3)
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Corey Cohen -
Duane -
Evan Koblentz