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The 2000 RCS/RI |
The Retro-Computing Society of Rhode Island, Inc. hold their monthly Open House on the third Saturday of every month from 10:00am - 4:30pm at their facility in Providence, RI. See the online directions for instructions on how to get there.
On Open House days, the telephone line, (401) 861-1977, is staffed with bona- fide humans who can answer questions about the organisation and give detailed directions to our facility.
Archived calendars for 1998 and 1999 are available on-line.
Celebrating its 30th birthday this year is the venerable pdp11 processor built by Digital Equipment Corporation. The line was introduced in 1970 and remained in continuous production for nearly a quarter- century.
In January RCS/RI featured the pdp11s in their collection. These include a pdp11/34, several pdp11/03s, a pdp11/40 (used as a front-end processor in their KL-10), and few other types.
This was the first of a two-month special on the -11, and began the task of getting the hardware operational for the second date to follow in February, 2000.
During the January Open House, the RCS/RI cast re-populated the KL-10E's front-end processor, a pdp11/40, and did some preliminary work on a pdp11/73 in the collection.
As a continuance of RCS/RI's celebration of the pdp11, February's Open House featured running pdp11s showcasing the differing operating systems which ran atop the platform.
Operating systems featured RT-11, P/OS, and RSX-11. In addition, various games including Adventure, Super Star Trek, and a flight simulator were available for play and testing.
Unfortunately, due to inclement weather conditions on the 19th, things did not go as well as we had hoped. While several folks did investigate the Open House, some of the membership were unable to attend, and sadly, not as many machines were on-hand and running as we'd originally anticipated.
In March, RCS/RI held an open working session while they evaluated the internal condition of their mainframe- class DECSYSTEM 2065 (which is actually a KL-10E).
The evaluation showed that the machine is remarkably intact for a system that had migrated from garage- to- garage for several years. The entire EBOX (Execution Box) is complete, and the two RH-20 channels and the single DTE-20 interface are mostly "there".
Unfortunately, the memory subsystems had been depleted of boards over time and we are going to need to replace all of them. We are also going to require the inter- bay cables which link the EBOX to the I/O backpanel.
Information on where the following boards may be acquired is actively sought:
RCS/RI's open house in April 2000 featured their Packard Bell 250, one of three known to be in existance. Completed on April 14, 1961, our 250 celebrated its thirty-ninth birthday this month!
We took a thorough census of the machine and found the system to be remarkably complete for a machine which had been out of service for several years before we acquired it. This will ease the restoration effort substantially!
We are seeking three GD-100 (Gate Driver) modules for the 250 and two DG-101 (Diode Gate) modules. If you know where examples of these modules may be secured, please contact us!
April's open house at the RCS/RI will featured IBM's RS/6000 family of systems and the operating system they run, AIX.
RCS/RI's collection features two POWERserver 930s which formed the East Coast GNJ-node, part of the original NSF T3 network. Also on display will be a later, smaller model, the POWERstation 220.
May's event turned into a furious working session which saw the near- completion of our long- awaited power upgrade and the introduction into our space of three- phase power which is required to run some of our larger systems.
June will feature the many different alphanumeric terminals that Digital Equipment Corporation manufactured over the years. Included in the RCS/RI collection is a complete line of DECwriter hard- copy terminals, and a large number of video- display machines including some that are capable of Sixel and REGIS graphics.
July's open house will showcase RCS/RI's collection of MAI Basic Four computers. The Basic Four is a small- scale minicomputer suitable for use in small businesses and medium- scale departments. We have four of these systems representing two distinct models.
In August, we investigated the AT&T 3B2 microcomputer and their small- scale UNIX PC. The 3B2s achieved widespread, but fairly anonymous, use as controllers for PBX systems and telephone central- office switches; the "UNIX PC" was AT&T's attempt at "mainstreaming" the UNIX environment for office use.
Our two UNIX PCs are now fully functional thanks to the efforts of those at the Open House. The 3B2 still needs testing and lacks a console cable.
In September, RCS/RI explored one of the hidden aspects of retrocomputing - that of documentation and library skills.
The maintenance of a collection such as RCS/RI's requires an extensive technical library and special skills to maintain the library itself (and ours is a large one). The 16th was an opportunity to see how a library is inventoried and indexed (by novices :-) ) and a chance to see more than blinking lights and spinning tapes.
The RCS/RI membership worked late into the evening on that occasion and assembled six large shelves in the library space and popluated them with some of the extensive collection of doco in the collection. The task of inventorying and indexing awaits completion.
October, 2000 is the 20th anniversary of the introduction of the VAX-11/750, the second model in the VAX-11 line.
In October, RCS/RI demonstrated some of their Digital Equipment Corporation VAX/VMS systems. The running systems included a VAX-11/750. It was decided not to run the MicroVAXen at the time. Their static VAX 6220 was also on display.
Several important projects were concluded at this month's event; four "new" disk drives were powered on and certified using the 11/750 and the classic computer game, "SPACEWAR!" is now operational on their PDP-12.
RCS/RI's small Honeywell machines formed November's topic. These include a mid- sized "Ultimate" system and the minicomputer- class H-316.
H-316s were sometimes used as low-cost IMPs (Interface Message Processors) on the ARPANET (the ancestor of the Internet) as a low-cost alternative to the ruggedised H-516. 316s were also used as TIPs (Terminal Interface Processors) on ARPANET as well.
The Honeywell 316 is quite interesting in its manufacturing techniques as it was one of the very early machines to make use of surface- mount technology. Surface- mount went on to become the standard method of attaching components to printed circuit (PC) boards in the '80s and beyond.
In December, RCS/RI celebrated its sixth year of existance as a working group and its third anniversary as a non- profit corporation.
There was no formal agenda for the December date. The day served as a "social event" with no fixed feature. Guests were treated to stories of old machines, views of the RCS/RI collection, and general good humour.