How many Alpha Micros are still in use?

[Tim Malone]

Does anybody have a guesstimate of how many live, working Alpha
Microsystems are still in use in the business world today?

After 18 years of running Metropolis Khalsa accounting and a custom
MRP package in d/basic, we are finally planning on dumping the old
system this year.

[Josh]

There are three... I counted ;-)

Just joking... AMOS is alive and well.

J.

"Tim Malone" <timm...@condordc.com> wrote in message
news:afffe9b1.02011...@posting.google.com...

[Jeff Kreider]

That's a toughy. Judging from the SSD numbers, there have been about 52,000 unique
AMOS M-68xxx series systems sold altogether. With your departure, that makes one
less. So my guess is 51,999.

Tim Malone wrote:

--
Jeff Kreider, Consultant; 210 N. Iris Avenue; Rialto, CA 92376-5727
Phone: (909) 874-6214; Fax: (909) 874-2143; Email: je...@book-orphanage.com

Computer consulting specializing in Alpha Micro Environments
http://www.1starrynight.com
--------------------
Alpha Micro Users Society (AMUS) http://www.amus.org
E-mail: in...@amus.org
--------------------
Used Books, First Editions, Signed. See http://www.book-orphanage.com

[Jeff Kreider]

Oh, a while back a Micro Med customer won Alpha Micro's Granddaddy award for having
the oldest running system who was still using old AMOS (WD-16 chip set). So that makes
my guesstimate 52,000 even.

[Papa Georgio]

Beleive it or not I work for an Alpha Micro reseller and we ship about
a machine a month.

Papa

[Paul Richardson]

I recently heard a statistic that there are 15,000 Alpha Micro systems
installed and working in the Greater LA/Orange County area

I would guess that there are around 1,000 in the UK - we have 5 running our
business applications

Paul

"Papa Georgio" <no...@ofyourbusiness.com> wrote in message
news:bp9p4u8h517blf7g4...@4ax.com...

[Bob Rubendunst]

Papa Georgio <no...@ofyourbusiness.com> wrote in message news:<bp9p4u8h517blf7g4...@4ax.com>...

> Beleive it or not I work for an Alpha Micro reseller and we ship about
> a machine a month.

I know that in 2001 I had about 100 AMOS Autolog units sold. In 1997,
there were at about four times that number. To be fair, my units sold
dropped off when Soft Machines became a part time enterprise. But to
be honest, the reason it became a part time enterprise was because I
wasn't selling as many units.

I would guess that of the 52,000 assumed Motorola based machines,
perhaps up to 25-30% are still on active duty. My guess is the
attrition rate for active units far exceeds the new sales.

Bob Rubendunst,
Soft Machines
http://www.softmach.com

[Tim Malone]

soft...@softmach.com (Bob Rubendunst) wrote in message news:<8c465233.02012...@posting.google.com>...

Thanks for the input folks. I wasn't trying to dis the old machine,
really. Twenty years is a long time for one machine to be up and
running, although it has gone through several upgrades over the years.
I was just trying to get a flavor for the market. I mean, you don't
exactly see any ads for Alpha Micro system administrators on Dice or
Monster these days. I know it used to be a close-knit community with
very passionate participation. Do you think our collection of
AMOS.LOG (back to Aug 84) is worth anything?

[JB]

I'd say they'd generate enough heat for maybe a dozen hotdogs and a bag or 2
of marshmallows...

(No Jeff, I'm not cutting on your editorial skills :)

"Tim Malone" <timm...@condordc.com> wrote in message

news:afffe9b1.02012...@posting.google.com...

[Kodom0336]

I think you would be surprised on how many are actually out there. Just when I
start to think, "that's it" I get a call or two on systems I didn't know were
there. I believe there are many dentists, rental yards, cab companies, and
bowling centers out there running and rewriting bitmaps every day.

Ken Odom in Denver, CO

[Jeremy Ozer]

If you want to sell the Alpha, a good place to look is comp.os.linux.alpha,
a news group where all the old alpha people hang. They will get a kick out
of a 20 year old machine and snap it up. A good bet is to put it on auction
on ebay and link to it on the newsgroup. Good luck!

Jeremy

Tim Malone <timm...@condordc.com> wrote in message
news:afffe9b1.02012...@posting.google.com...

[Bob Rubendunst]

You are speaking about DEC Alpha systems, which can run linux, or
Tru64. I was speaking about 68xxx based machines made by the company
Alpha Microsystems. People from both camps post here. Linux won't run
on many of the Alpha Micro boxes because a large portion of them have
no MMU. The AMOS O/S to this day does not require an MMU as the whole
memory space is open season to every program that wants access. Even
the BASIC lets you poke system memory! In spite of all of this, it
actually can still work quite well.

"Jeremy Ozer" <jo...@rcn.com> wrote in message news:<a4eqd1$3km$1...@bob.news.rcn.net>...

[Shawn Davidson]

Ken,
We're trying to keep boosting that number.

[vin...@gmail.com]

I used to sell Alpha Micro's all over North America. They were great systems starting with the AM100 an 8 bit S-100 system!!!

Jeff

[chetmf...@gmail.com]

On Monday, June 15, 2015 at 6:19:28 PM UTC-4, Jeff Seldon - Alpha Exchange wrote:
> I used to sell Alpha Micro's all over North America. They were great systems starting with the AM100 an 8 bit S-100 system!!!
>
> Jeff

Just rescued one from the junk pile at an estate sale. Do these have any value? I am having a hard time finding a reference for current value as either a museum piece or for a collector.

[Bob Salita]

I doubt any model of Alpha Micro is rare, collectible or museum piece. Certainly there are contemporary systems that are such as Apple I, Altair 8080, possibly a few others.

[chetmf...@gmail.com]

Thanks for the reply. I dont see any of these anywhere and I would bet to guess there are a few survivors out there that may need parts. I'll throw it up at a high price and see if it sticks to the wall. Thanks again and yes.....I wish it was a Apple.

[Jeff Seldon - Alpha Exchange]

This is still in use!

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/3efsm8d1j9u2r5i/AABqOwrMum425pc1PfaBWNPGa?dl=0

[chetmf...@gmail.com]

On Friday, January 18, 2019 at 11:52:33 AM UTC-5, Jeff Seldon - Alpha Exchange wrote:
> This is still in use!
>
> https://www.dropbox.com/sh/3efsm8d1j9u2r5i/AABqOwrMum425pc1PfaBWNPGa?dl=0

I just see a picture of a box. Am I missing something?

Do you have any idea of value Jeff?

Still looking. Thanks!! :)

[gorsk...@gmail.com]

2002? Ha Ha it's 2019 now and my alpha is still running my dental office just fine!

[Jeff Seldon - Alpha Exchange]

Is it running on an AM100T?

[Al Kossow]

On 1/18/19 9:07 AM, chetmf...@gmail.com wrote:

> Do you have any idea of value Jeff?
>
> Still looking. Thanks!! :)
>

what model is it?

[sess...@gmail.com]

On Friday, January 11, 2002 at 1:38:08 PM UTC-8, Tim Malone wrote:

Mike Sessi is looking for an AM100/L for a school idea
Anyone have one ??
Thanks

[Gary XHLC]

I know of a M68-based AM1000 that is sitting in a basement in Milwaukee, WI, that is theoretically going to be donated to a computer museum as soon as it can be extricated from said basement. If it hasn't already. Operable now? Not sure. The CDC Hawk HD (5mb fixed, 5mb removable) with it hasn't been spun up in at least a couple decades, and some care will have to be taken with it before any attempt is made. It and a WD16 AM100 (IMSAI front panel and identical CDC Hawk hd) belonged to a late friend of mine -- if anybody picked up a system like the latter from an estate sale in the upstate NY area in 2016, that was probably it. Unless it was sold off earlier, when he entered Assisted Living due to diabetes-related stroke. I remember going to a few AMUS meetings in the Chicago area back in the early-to-mid-90's.

[Gary XHLC]

An original AM100 or AM1000 should be considered "vintage" at least. When was the one you found manufactured? As far as "Rare" goes, the WD-16 based AM100's might be, at this point. Later M68 based machines, it's a coin toss.

[Lydia Marie Williamson]

On Monday, August 31, 2020 at 5:25:39 PM UTC-5, Gary XHLC wrote:
> I know of a M68-based AM1000 that is sitting in a basement in Milwaukee, WI, that is theoretically going to be donated to a computer museum as soon as it can be extricated from said basement. If it hasn't already. Operable now? Not sure. The CDC Hawk HD (5mb fixed, 5mb removable) with it hasn't been spun up in at least a couple decades, and some care will have to be taken with it before any attempt is made. It and a WD16 AM100 (IMSAI front panel and identical CDC Hawk hd) belonged to a late friend of mine -- if anybody picked up a system like the latter from an estate sale in the upstate NY area in 2016, that was probably it. Unless it was sold off earlier, when he entered Assisted Living due to diabetes-related stroke. I remember going to a few AMUS meetings in the Chicago area back in the early-to-mid-90's.

If you have a C or Fortran compiler for it, then you might want to try and compile and run Zork on it, to see what happens.

The 1991 C translation: https://github.com/LydiaMarieWilliamson/zork
The Fortran version (and 2021 C99 translation): https://github.com/LydiaMarieWilliamson/zork-fortran

If the latest versions don't work or compile, then you may want to pull up the earliest revisions in the respective repositories.
The 1991 C translation had AMOS-related hacks added into it, which I've been gradually scaling back; so there may be a breaking point short of "current version" where AMOS-compatibility is broken.

[Gary XHLC]

On Wednesday, September 29, 2021 at 3:04:26 PM UTC-5, Lydia Marie Williamson wrote:
> If you have a C or Fortran compiler for it, then you might want to try and compile and run Zork on it, to see what happens.
>
> The 1991 C translation: https://github.com/LydiaMarieWilliamson/zork
> The Fortran version (and 2021 C99 translation): https://github.com/LydiaMarieWilliamson/zork-fortran
>
> If the latest versions don't work or compile, then you may want to pull up the earliest revisions in the respective repositories.
> The 1991 C translation had AMOS-related hacks added into it, which I've been gradually scaling back; so there may be a breaking point short of "current version" where AMOS-compatibility is broken.

*I* don't have any of that, nor knowledge of what compilers the machine has (Fortran is a certainty, C is less so) nor current access to the machine. I am merely reporting what I know of its fate.