Damn. One full month since I last posted to the blog. Where to start? One twelfth of the new year is about to be done with. And what's to show for it?
Firstly, I've become involved in an extremely cool project, the Nordic Simulator Center, NSC. One day, a man with the nickname "kaasen" entered a local academic IRC channel I dropped by, and asked if anyone in there knew anything about these PDP-11 computers. Well, someone immediately pointed me out (Gee, wonder why...) and we started talking. Apparently, somebody has gotten their hands on a full "Level B" (whatever that means) DC-10 simulator, made by Link-Miles in 1977. Well, what kind of computers control a flight simulator made in 1977? Well, a cluster of PDP-11s, of course.
We quickly made contact and I wanted to stop by. And stop by I did. Crikey, what a setup. A full DC-10 cockpit with original instruments. Downstairs, there's a five-rack configuration of three PDP-11/45 CPUs. The blinkenlights fanatic in me goes mad. :)
The machines had been powered up in the past, so the PSUs have been verified. The voltages all seem in spec (a common problem with the PDP-11/45 series). On the second day, I got CPU B running. On the third day, I got CPU NVS *somewhat* running. Things are progressing.
There is more, I'll post about it tomorrow.
Showing posts with label ND. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ND. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Saturday, October 28, 2006
Miscellaneous, mischievous minutiae!
Well, life happens, and that's good, I guess. A few interesting and a lot of quasi-interesting things happen at times. Firstly, I upgraded my desktop Ubuntu install to Edgy Eft! Thank you, Debian and Ubuntu, for making another brilliant release. Xvideo has broken, though - I'll try to figure that one out, but I think it's my own fault (Did not restart after upgrade).
But probably most interestingly, I've started my first real restoration project since the PDP-7 project in 2003. Though that never did pan out (That wasn't just my own fault...), with this project I have no excuse. I should take you back to the start of this:
25th of March, 2006, we get a mail by Norwegian ARPAnet/Internet pioneer Pål Spilling. Apparently, there is a NORD-1 in a barn in Gjerdrum (Countryside outside of Oslo). We go to inspect this. It's not just a NORD-1, there's also a NORD-10. (pictures available here)
Apparently, the farmer, a very nice man named Finn Stokke, had been hired to haul away the decaying remains of Norsk Data, and he realized that there was history in these machines.
Multiple attempts are made to salvage the computers, but things collide every time. Finally, months later, Pål Spilling nags a little more at me. We arrange a move with Pål Spilling's trailer.
We had a tentative agreement from March with Geir Isene (really cool guy) in FreeCode (really cool company) to place the machines there. Problem was, I couldn't reach him. The haul was on very short notice, and he was in meetings the whole day. So we improvise. We load the machines into the CS building, with help from some very friendly people at the University.
This has proved to be distinctly for the better. FreeCode was considering moving, and the subsequent restoration project would not have been possible without the equipment of the microelectronics laboratory.
There is talk about a permanent exhibition in the new cantina planned for the second Computer Science building currently being constructed (To the neighbours' great chagrin, I might add...). A NORD-1, a NORD-10, and a few DEC machines would be obvious candidates.
In addition, I have been talking with the telecomms museum and museum of science and technology to try to somehow get together an exhibit in occasion of the 40th anniversary of Norsk Data, with a few running machines. I'm sure a Satellite-9 would make an excellent machine to run a multiplayer game application on, to entertain the kids - and also have some neat exhibits, possibly even with live demonstrations of what application development was like in the bad old days - Blinkenlights, Teletype, Facit punch, maybe magtape, and all.
I've also gotten some (insufficient) work done on my website. I really want to make a document called "Program development using MAC" on the wiki.
But probably most interestingly, I've started my first real restoration project since the PDP-7 project in 2003. Though that never did pan out (That wasn't just my own fault...), with this project I have no excuse. I should take you back to the start of this:
25th of March, 2006, we get a mail by Norwegian ARPAnet/Internet pioneer Pål Spilling. Apparently, there is a NORD-1 in a barn in Gjerdrum (Countryside outside of Oslo). We go to inspect this. It's not just a NORD-1, there's also a NORD-10. (pictures available here)
Apparently, the farmer, a very nice man named Finn Stokke, had been hired to haul away the decaying remains of Norsk Data, and he realized that there was history in these machines.
Multiple attempts are made to salvage the computers, but things collide every time. Finally, months later, Pål Spilling nags a little more at me. We arrange a move with Pål Spilling's trailer.
We had a tentative agreement from March with Geir Isene (really cool guy) in FreeCode (really cool company) to place the machines there. Problem was, I couldn't reach him. The haul was on very short notice, and he was in meetings the whole day. So we improvise. We load the machines into the CS building, with help from some very friendly people at the University.
This has proved to be distinctly for the better. FreeCode was considering moving, and the subsequent restoration project would not have been possible without the equipment of the microelectronics laboratory.
There is talk about a permanent exhibition in the new cantina planned for the second Computer Science building currently being constructed (To the neighbours' great chagrin, I might add...). A NORD-1, a NORD-10, and a few DEC machines would be obvious candidates.
In addition, I have been talking with the telecomms museum and museum of science and technology to try to somehow get together an exhibit in occasion of the 40th anniversary of Norsk Data, with a few running machines. I'm sure a Satellite-9 would make an excellent machine to run a multiplayer game application on, to entertain the kids - and also have some neat exhibits, possibly even with live demonstrations of what application development was like in the bad old days - Blinkenlights, Teletype, Facit punch, maybe magtape, and all.
I've also gotten some (insufficient) work done on my website. I really want to make a document called "Program development using MAC" on the wiki.
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