[rescue] Living computer museum & labs

[John Francini]

Hi Dave,

Thanks for the invite - some day I might make it down there, seeing as I cut
my teeth programming a PDP-8/e running TSS/8, but many of my DEC employee days
were spent working on their 36-bit iron. This is why the Seattle museum was a
'must see'. They had the following 36-bit DEC gear in their computer lab, all
up and running:

PDP-6 (console only) running ITS on an emulator
KA-10 with 128 Kwords of memory, running TOPS-10 6.01
KI-10 with 512 KWords of memory running TOPS-10 6.03
KL-10 with 2M? of memory running TOPS-10 7.04
KL-10 running WAITS
2x KS-10s, one running ITS, the other unknown
XKL Toad-2 running TOPS-20 7(110131)-1


Plus a bunch of other things: CDC, Xerox Sigma 9, IBM 4341...

At the moment the only 36-bit system still running is the Toad-2, because
that's a KL-10 in a 1U server box. I hope they reopen once the bloody pandemic
has passed.

I will definitely make it down there some day!

Thanks,

John



b
John Francini <francini at mac.com>
b
I have come to the conclusion that one useless man is called a disgrace;
that two are called a law firm; and that three or more become a Congress.
And by God I have had *this Congress!b
 b John Adams

> On 2 Jul 2020, at 12:22 , Dave McGuire <mcguire at neurotica.com> wrote:
>
> On 7/2/20 12:19 PM, John Francini wrote:
>> Hopefully this will be only temporary. A year ago, there was something
driving
>> me to get my butt out to Seattle to see the museum (I'm in New Hampshire).
So
>> I took a 'busman's holiday' and went out there for a week.
>>
>> It was absolutely wonderful to be around all that old DEC iron - and it
was
>> all RUNNING too!
>
>  LSSM is a lot closer to New Hampshire than Seattle, and has a pretty
> strong DEC slant.  Lots and lots of running machines.
>
>  Not competing, just sayin'.
>
>  We're closed to tours due to COVID19, but we're not "closing".
>
>> A vaccine can't come soon enough...
>
>  Agreed.
>
>           -Dvae
>
> --
> Dave McGuire, AK4HZ
> New Kensington, PA
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