Anyone ever heard of the IS1000? I can't remember if it was made by GE or GTE.
On Thu, Jul 2, 2015 at 4:39 PM, Mike Ross <tmfdm...@gmail.com> wrote: > There are interesting and obscure machines from the most mainstream > manufacturers. > > Take the IBM System/7. Successor to the 1800, succeeded by the > Series/1. They were *ubiquitous* - one in every telephone exchange in > the USA, I've heard. They even made a special ruggedised version for > shipboard use. Yet they're functionally *extinct*. Henk Stegeman in > the Netherlands has most of one, but is missing a crucial board (ALU > IIRC). I had a front panel, which I donated to Henk, and an OS disk. I > retain one of the special IBM-branded ASR33 Teletypes that were > sometimes used with them, plus a couple of manuals and sales > brochures, And that's *it*. Unless anyone knows different, no complete > systems exist. They're extinct, and that's a scandal and a shame. > > Mike > > On Wed, Jul 1, 2015 at 5:56 PM, Brent Hilpert <hilp...@cs.ubc.ca> wrote: > > On 2015-Jul-01, at 2:26 PM, Matt Patoray wrote: > >> On Wed, Jul 1, 2015 at 5:21 PM, Mark Linimon <lini...@lonesome.com> > wrote: > >>> On Tue, Jun 30, 2015 at 06:54:51PM -0700, Brent Hilpert wrote: > >>>> Something I could wish to find/stumble-across would be one of the > >>>> out-of-the-mainstream minis from the 60s/70s - something not DEC, > >>>> not HP, not IBM, not DG (although a little Nova would be nice). > >>> > >>> I had to suffer through building something on a Computer Automation > >>> mini back in the, well, never you mind when it was. (The misery was > >>> not the mini's fault). So I would take one of those if it came > >>> available. > >>> > >>> Still hoping for an 11/20, of course. > > > >> Varian made interesting mini computers with a very cool front panel. > >> > >> I think RCA at one time also made smaller computers along with the > >> Spectra/70 mainframe series. > > > > It's always surprising how much variety there was in the mini market of > that era. > > Even when you take out what might be called the 2nd tier of > manufacturers such as Microdata, Prime and so on, there was still a > plethora of also-rans. > > > > I find it an interesting era: once ICs were readily available and easy > to design with (mainly TTL), everyone and their dog decided they would take > a stab at building and marketing a CPU. I was a kid in that era so wasn't > on the inside, but my offhand interpretation is that while some of them may > have been successful in niche areas such as instrumentation, in the main > they got shook out when the reality of maintaining, marketing and evolving > a system architecture hit. But, that's an historical progression common to > many/most new technologies - > > same thing happened in the microprocessor market a few years a later. > > > > A Varian has been sitting on ebay for sometime now .. sitting, because > the price is silly: > > > http://www.ebay.com/itm/VINTAGE-VARIAN-DATA-MACHINES-620-L-100-COMPUTER-/220737926675?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3365017613 > > > > > > -- > > http://www.corestore.org > 'No greater love hath a man than he lay down his life for his brother. > Not for millions, not for glory, not for fame. > For one person, in the dark, where no one will ever know or see.' >