The old DEC complex.
Joe the Aroma
complex site). Does anyone know if it's still there? I miss it, even
though I was *young* during those years.
Bradford J. Hamilton
!I lived in Merrimack NH from 1977-1985 (right by the Nashua, NH DEC
!complex site). Does anyone know if it's still there? I miss it, even
!though I was *young* during those years.
The Merrimack campus was taken over in the late 1990's by Fidelity Investments;
I worked for Fidelity for a number of years, and used to travel regularly to
Merrmiack to work on the VMS machines located there (VMS was - and probably
still is - a miniscule fraction of the total O/S presence at Fidelity).
__________________________________________________________________________
Bradford J. Hamilton "All opinions are my own"
bMradAhamiPltSon-at-coMmcAast.nPeSt "Lose the MAPS, and replace '-at-'
with @"
Robert Deininger
There's no HP (former DEC) facility in Merrimack anymore. There are two
sites in Nashua.
-- not-Bob
Larry Kilgallen
That was what he asked about -- Nashua. Perhaps 1985 was before the
Merrimack facility opened.
Back a while ago (before Robert lived in New Hampshire), I believe
there was the Spitbrook Road facility and a repurposed shopping center
near the FAA facility. Certainly the denizens of the shopping center
facility are now in the Oracle facilities.
Bill Todd
"Larry Kilgallen" <Kilg...@SpamCop.net> wrote in message
news:1uXmP2...@eisner.encompasserve.org...
> In article
<rdeininger-10...@user-105n831.dialup.mindspring.com>,
rdein...@mindspringdot.com (Robert Deininger) writes:
> > In article <2021ed07.03110...@posting.google.com>,
> > schiz...@yahoo.com (Joe the Aroma) wrote:
> >
> >>I lived in Merrimack NH from 1977-1985 (right by the Nashua, NH DEC
> >>complex site). Does anyone know if it's still there? I miss it, even
> >>though I was *young* during those years.
> >
> > There's no HP (former DEC) facility in Merrimack anymore. There are two
> > sites in Nashua.
>
> That was what he asked about -- Nashua. Perhaps 1985 was before the
> Merrimack facility opened.
No - IIRC Merrimack opened in 1979.
- bill
Bill Todd
"Bill Todd" <bill...@metrocast.net> wrote in message
news:MOOdnSSU0JU...@metrocast.net...
...
> No - IIRC Merrimack opened in 1979.
Whoops - I think I'm remembering when my group went there. The first groups
may have moved in 1978.
- bill
Steve Lionel
wrote:
>> No - IIRC Merrimack opened in 1979.
>
>Whoops - I think I'm remembering when my group went there. The first groups
>may have moved in 1978.
It was open when I joined DEC in October 1978, and it didn't seem as if it had
JUST opened...
I remember when there were some seven DEC facilities in the greater Nashua
area (Nashua, Merrimack and Hudson (NH, not the chip fab in MA)). Indeed
there are now only two which continue to have a DEC-heritage presence - the
software engineering facility on Spit Brook Road in Nashua (where I still am),
and the software manufacturing facilty on Cotton Road in Nashua.
Steve
Bill Todd
"Steve Lionel" <Steve....@intel.com> wrote in message
news:2o9vqvknlpsqrgeef...@4ax.com...
> On Mon, 10 Nov 2003 09:38:35 -0500, "Bill Todd" <bill...@metrocast.net>
> wrote:
>
> >> No - IIRC Merrimack opened in 1979.
> >
> >Whoops - I think I'm remembering when my group went there. The first
groups
> >may have moved in 1978.
>
> It was open when I joined DEC in October 1978, and it didn't seem as if it
had
> JUST opened...
I don't think it opened much earlier, because ISTR that the reason the
RMS-11 group didn't move there directly from the Mill (but instead spent a
year in Tewksbury) was that the space wasn't yet ready (and IIRC there was
only a single building at that time). The regrettable break-up of
Engineering out of the Mill (if we ignore the earlier move of 36-bit
engineering to Marlborough) occurred in mid-1978, with RSX/VMS engineering
moving to Tewksbury (and then later to Spitbrook) and commercial engineering
(languages, database, RSTS, ...) and associated product functions moving to
Merrimack (RT-11 remained in the Mill, and was thus somewhat envied - and
when the personal computer products came along later, they were based in the
Mill as well).
- bill
Steve Lionel
wrote:
>I don't think it opened much earlier, because ISTR that the reason the
>RMS-11 group didn't move there directly from the Mill (but instead spent a
>year in Tewksbury) was that the space wasn't yet ready (and IIRC there was
>only a single building at that time).
Well, Tewksbury opened in September 1978 or very close to that. I still
remember the "Welcome to Andover Street" banner there, which was intended to
evoke the feeling that Tewksbury was just another Maynard facility, even
though it was some twenty miles away. Following in the grand DEC tradition,
the Tewksbury plant was a converted Caldor department store, with a converted
A&P grocery store across the parking lot. Last I checked, it was part of some
life insurance company office complex.
I interviewed at Tewksbury and worked there until moving to Spit Brook
(Nashua) when the facility opened in July 1980, though my first few weeks were
in Merrimack because my group (Commercial Languages) was there.
Steve
Bob Lail
Well just to keep this string moving, Merrimack MKO01 opened in late 1977.
I started at DEC in Dec 1978 with the Communications Engineering Group doing
Modem Development at MKO Building 1 . MKO had been open just over a year at
that point. I moved out, to ZKO with CSS, when it was sold to Fidelity in
the Spring of 1997.
\Bob Lail
--
Robert G. Lail
Senior Solution Architect
Corporate Accounts
Hewlett-Packard Company
Voice: 603.424.6272
Email: RobertDOTLail@hpDOTcom
(replace the DOT with ".")
Bill Todd
...
Following in the grand DEC tradition,
> the Tewksbury plant was a converted Caldor department store, with a
converted
> A&P grocery store across the parking lot. Last I checked, it was part of
some
> life insurance company office complex.
I actually had the pleasure of working there again about 3 years ago. Both
sides of the parking lot had been the headquarters of Avid Technology for
quite a while at that point, and AFAIK still are. There were quite a few
ex-Deccies there with me as well (though a major layoff a couple of years
ago eliminated some of them): Eric Peters (CTO and co-founder - that's what
he did after Apollo; he has since left to form a stealth start-up), Herb
Jacobs (in a partner role - he and Stan Rabinowitz developed a file system
that Avid licensed under an arrangement that made it worth Herb's time to
come along with it; Herb is reportedly now semi-retired and exploring game
development - which seems kind of a waste, but if he's happy...), Stan (he
decided to become an employee), Jim Ravan (one of those subsequently laid
off), Sandy Snaman, Maureen Johnson (who arrived shortly before I left), and
I'm sure I've missed more (my apologies to them for my forgetfulness if they
read this).
- bill
JF Mezei
Considering the year they were built, what was the state of the buildings in
the 1995-1999 era ? had they undergone renovations inside, or was Digital so
cash strapped that they were starting to look runned down ? has the purchase
by Compaq and now HP changed any of this ?
Bradford J. Hamilton
!re: Digital facilities in new england.
!
!Considering the year they were built, what was the state of the buildings in
!the 1995-1999 era ? had they undergone renovations inside, or was Digital so
!cash strapped that they were starting to look runned down ? has the purchase
!by Compaq and now HP changed any of this ?
I can't speak for the DEC facilities that are left, and I did not see the state
of the buildings that were bought by Fidelity. I can tell you that each of the
four buildings was "gutted" and rebuilt. They were not old buildings to begin
with - Fidelity just wanted to re-do the space their own way.
The hp facility in Marlborough has the two "older" buildings on the combined
Fidelity/hp "campus", but I *have* seen the inside of both of the hp buildings;
they are definitely *not* "run-down", and they were not in bad shape during the
COMPAQ era, either. At least one of those buildings was meant to be seen by
customers, so they had to keep the buildings in good shape for customer visits.
Steve Lionel
wrote:
>Considering the year they were built, what was the state of the buildings in
>the 1995-1999 era ? had they undergone renovations inside, or was Digital so
>cash strapped that they were starting to look runned down ? has the purchase
>by Compaq and now HP changed any of this ?
The facilities I know of were fine. I worked in (and still do) ZKO (Spit
Brook Road, Nashua) and it has been maintained well. HP hasn't done a lot to
it, but it is being kept up - especially the landscaping outside which is well
cared for. Walls have been repainted, new carpet laid in places, etc. Some
parts look a bit more worn than others, but not signfiicantly so. ZKO1 is now
23 years old.
The only other significant site I visited from that timeframe was MRO, and it
too seemed to be holding up well.
Steve
Paul Repacholi
> The facilities I know of were fine. I worked in (and still do) ZKO
> (Spit Brook Road, Nashua) and it has been maintained well. HP
> hasn't done a lot to it, but it is being kept up - especially the
> landscaping outside which is well cared for. Walls have been
> repainted, new carpet laid in places, etc. Some parts look a bit
> more worn than others, but not signfiicantly so. ZKO1 is now 23
> years old.
Have they changed the barcode?
--
Paul Repacholi 1 Crescent Rd.,
+61 (08) 9257-1001 Kalamunda.
West Australia 6076
comp.os.vms,- The Older, Grumpier Slashdot
Raw, Cooked or Well-done, it's all half baked.
EPIC, The Architecture of the future, always has been, always will be.
Didier Morandi
> Steve Lionel <Steve....@intel.com> writes:
>
>
>>The facilities I know of were fine. I worked in (and still do) ZKO
>>(Spit Brook Road, Nashua) and it has been maintained well. HP
>>hasn't done a lot to it, but it is being kept up - especially the
>>landscaping outside which is well cared for. Walls have been
>>repainted, new carpet laid in places, etc. Some parts look a bit
>>more worn than others, but not signfiicantly so. ZKO1 is now 23
>>years old.
>
>
> Have they changed the barcode?
The one which reads
Digital Softwa Reengineering?
:-)
D.
Steve Lionel
wrote:
>Have they changed the barcode?
It changed once, at least 10 years ago.
Initially, it read:
digitalsoftwa
reengineering
Now it reads (approximately)
customerswin
whenwedeliver
The background color also changed from red-orange to gray, as did the VMS
binders. ("Binders? What are binders?")
Needless to say, the rewording was none too popular around here.
The biggest disappointment, to me anyway, was the time capsule. This was
buried in the walkway outside the entrance to ZK1 in 1980, to be opened in
1996. It contained a bunch of things donated by various engineering groups,
including a microfiche copy of VMS 2.0 and a copy of "CPU Wars" (donated by
yours truly). Unfortunately, the "capsule" was not constructed nor sealed
well, and the typical freeze-thaw cycle of New Hampshire winters cracked the
container and water damaged all the contents. This was discovered during
repair of the walkway sometime in the early 90s.
Steve
Steve
Alan Frisbie
> On Thu, 13 Nov 2003 03:24:37 +0800, Paul Repacholi <pr...@prep.synonet.com>
> wrote:
>> Have they changed the barcode?
> It changed once, at least 10 years ago.
> Initially, it read:
>
> digitalsoftwa
> reengineering
>
> Now it reads (approximately)
>
> customerswin
> whenwedeliver
Very approximately. When I was there last year, I photographed
it for later analysis. I discovered that there are two one-bit
errors. What it actually says (in 7-bit ASCII) is:
Customers Win
.henWeFeliver
^ ^
The "." above actually stands for <ETB> (0010111), instead of
"W" (1010111). The first bar should be black (1) instead of
white (0).
The "F" (1000110) should actually be "D" (1000100).
Notice also the the top row has a space character in it, but
there are no spaces in the bottom row.
It is possible that it has been fixed since November 2002, but
that can easily be checked. If the first bar in the bottom
row is white, it has not been fixed. I wonder how long it has
been this way?
Alan
John Reagan
> It is possible that it has been fixed since November 2002, but
> that can easily be checked. If the first bar in the bottom
> row is white, it has not been fixed. I wonder how long it has
> been this way?
>
> Alan
- The space in the upper row is expected.
- The 'F' and non-printing characters showed up a few years back when
the facilities folks noticed some bars rusting at the attachment bolts.
They went in the back, found some spare bars and bolted them in. They
dind't realize (or care?) that some bars are 0 and others are 1.
--
John Reagan
Compaq Pascal/{A|I}MACRO Project Leader
Hewlett-Packard Company
Alan Frisbie
> Alan Frisbie wrote:
>
>> It is possible that it has been fixed since November 2002, but
>> that can easily be checked. If the first bar in the bottom
>> row is white, it has not been fixed. I wonder how long it has
>> been this way?
> - The space in the upper row is expected.
I agree. I was just noting that the top row had a space in
order to make the two rows line up.
> - The 'F' and non-printing characters showed up a few years back when
> the facilities folks noticed some bars rusting at the attachment bolts.
> They went in the back, found some spare bars and bolted them in. They
> didn't realize (or care?) that some bars are 0 and others are 1.
Has anyone considered simply swapping the two bars? Or, better yet,
a weekend hack to put up a better message?
Alan
Richard S. Shuford
By 1999, the "new" Digital headquarters building on Powder Mill Road,
in Maynard, was being converted for use as the headquarters of
Stratus Computer, Inc., which is there today as Stratus Technology.
(I was working for Stratus at the time. During the height of the
Y2K frenzy in 1999, we had the fun of moving the support center to
Maynard from Marlboro--while maintaining 24x7 support coverage. :-)
(Once, while talking to the Stratus mail-room staff, I was shown the
pile of physical mail that was still being delivered to the Powder
Mill building, addressed to "Bob Palmer or Current Resident". This
comprised a fascinating collection of catalogs of very expensive
merchandise. I was particularly impressed by a catalog of shoes,
in which the lowest priced pair cost $500 U.S. He wasn't known as
"G.Q. Bob" for nothing.)
As far as I am aware, no vestige of Digital Equipment Corporation
remains in Maynard, Massachusetts. Parker Street stands empty.
The biggest tenant in the Mill (now called "Clock Tower Place")
is Monster.com, which dispenses tiny droplets of employment hope
to laid-off software engineers. :-(
...RSS