TI 1500 preservation project
ac...@mbox.queen.it
r...@toad.rmkhome.com wrote:
> Michael Engel <en...@math.uni-siegen.de> wrote:
>
> :For those of you who don't know the 1500 - it's a Unix system manufactured
> :by TI from 1986 to 1993 when HP took over the TI Unix systems division.
> :The 1500 came in many varieties - from single CPU 68030 systems (TI 1505)
> :to asymmetric multiprocessor systems (up to 5 CPUs - 68020/030/040 - in
> :one system) and also in a rare combination with a TI Explorer in one
> :enclosure. The system bus was TI's NuBus and the systems ran TI System V,
> :a SVR3.2 variant.
>
> I was supporting a 1505 back in 1992-1995. Not a bad system at all
> except that it was picky about terminal - lousy termcap. It was a
> fairly vanilla SVR3.2 although not as vanilla as Interactive UNIX.
>
> If I can dredge up more anecdotes about this machine from my
> overloaded brain I will email you.
> --
> Rick Kelly r...@toad.rmkhome.com
Is there anyone collecting or preserving the older business system that
TI succesfully marketed? I'm talking about the TI990 family
Anyone hve some links to point me at?
THANKS
Riccardo
Raphael Nabet
>Hi, rick
>
>Is there anyone collecting or preserving the older business system that
>TI succesfully marketed? I'm talking about the TI990 family
>Anyone hve some links to point me at?
>
>THANKS
>
>Riccardo
I'd like to find more information on these old TI990, too. But I never
could find any TI990 data on the web...
Raphael
Al Kossow
> In article <37C9E6...@mbox.queen.it>, ac...@mbox.queen.it wrote:
>
> I'd like to find more information on these old TI990, too. But I never
> could find any TI990 data on the web...
I wonder if anyone has generated any statistics yet for the percentage
of information about computers on the web, based on decade.
My gut feeling, after doing searches for equipment vendors that were
well known in the 70's and even early 80's is there is a very sharp
knee in the curve somewhere between 1980 and 1985, which I beleive
corresponds to when GenX-ers first started using computers, and who
appear to have the majority of web pages.
I use as an example the reams of information on 80's video games, and
home computers, while there are only a few dozen web sites that have
information on 70's minicomputers.
Raphael Nabet
>I wonder if anyone has generated any statistics yet for the percentage
>of information about computers on the web, based on decade.
>
>My gut feeling, after doing searches for equipment vendors that were
>well known in the 70's and even early 80's is there is a very sharp
>knee in the curve somewhere between 1980 and 1985, which I beleive
>corresponds to when GenX-ers first started using computers, and who
>appear to have the majority of web pages.
>
>I use as an example the reams of information on 80's video games, and
>home computers, while there are only a few dozen web sites that have
>information on 70's minicomputers.
It is somewhat true. But remember that these minicomputers had really few
users, compared to, for instance, Apple II or Commodore 64. Another hint
: the TI990 series was discontinued AFTER the TI99 home computer series
(and it was born long before). Though, you'll easily find dozens of TI99
related sites, whereas you will be lucky to find a single site on TI990.
Raphael
--
Raphael Nabet.
MacV9T9 maintainer.
pyt...@club-NOSPAMPLEASEinternet.fr (delete the NOSPAMPLEASE)
Mike Swaim
: I wonder if anyone has generated any statistics yet for the percentage
: of information about computers on the web, based on decade.
Didn't the web start sometime in the '90s? Wouldn't that skew the
statistics?
--
Mike Swaim, Avatar of Chaos: Disclaimer:I sometimes lie.
Home: sw...@c-com.net
Alum: sw...@alumni.rice.edu Quote: "Boingie"^4 Y,W&D
Charles Richmond
>
> >I wonder if anyone has generated any statistics yet for the percentage
> >of information about computers on the web, based on decade.
> >
> >well known in the 70's and even early 80's is there is a very sharp
> >knee in the curve somewhere between 1980 and 1985, which I beleive
> >corresponds to when GenX-ers first started using computers, and who
> >appear to have the majority of web pages.
> >
> >I use as an example the reams of information on 80's video games, and
> >home computers, while there are only a few dozen web sites that have
> >information on 70's minicomputers.
>
> It is somewhat true. But remember that these minicomputers had really few
> users, compared to, for instance, Apple II or Commodore 64. Another hint
> : the TI990 series was discontinued AFTER the TI99 home computer series
> (and it was born long before). Though, you'll easily find dozens of TI99
> related sites, whereas you will be lucky to find a single site on TI990.
>
from all the references to "The Story of Mel".) All I have been able to find
is a picture that came from a manual--it shows the punches on the bottom edge.
Of course, I get hits on the "dead computer" list also.
For extra credit, look for info on the LGP-21. Afte CDC boughtthe LGP-30 from
Royal McBee, CDC mae a transiorized veron that used a disk stead of drum for
the main memory of the machine.
Lest you think that the LGP-30 is *not* historically significant: Edward Lorenz
was using an LGP-30 when he discovered Chaos theory.
--
+-------------------------------------------------------------+
| Charles and Francis Richmond <rich...@plano.net> |
+-------------------------------------------------------------+
Rob Lilley
MikeMc <spa...@gofish.net> wrote in message
news:E9FBC99214E83E9D.C5F82DD4...@lp.airnews.net...
>
> In article <WTXy3.2830$Jl.6...@news6.giganews.com>, Mike Swaim at
> sw...@gemini.c-com.net says...
> >
> > Didn't the web start sometime in the '90s? Wouldn't that skew the
> >statistics?
> >
> >--
> >Mike Swaim, Avatar of Chaos: Disclaimer:I sometimes lie.
>
> Big news item last week: 30-year anniversary of the birth of the
> internet [DARPAnet]. Early `90s might be the birth of browsers
> and HTML. Before that was newsreaders [Usenet] and plain file
> transfers.
>
C Costello
Have a look at http://www.computingmuseum.com/ where a guy called Thierry
Schembri has a site titled "The Museum of Dead, Gone and Obsolete
computers". The site is dedicated to the collection, restoration and
preservation of old computing devices (not just TI). He has his own
collection of older machines, one of which he refers to as a Texas
Instruments DSS 9900 and also as a Texas Instruments DSS 9550. Either way,
it is a large, old business machine. He also has some old TI calculators.
The site also has alot of other old (non-TI) machines featured.
C Costello asc...@gofree.indigo.ie
Dan O'Quinn
Dan O'Quinn
Ian Stirling
>Come now surely everyone knows Al Gore invented the internet
>Dan O'Quinn
>MikeMc <spa...@gofish.net> wrote in message
>news:E9FBC99214E83E9D.C5F82DD4...@lp.airnews.net...
>>
>> In article <WTXy3.2830$Jl.6...@news6.giganews.com>, Mike Swaim at
>> sw...@gemini.c-com.net says...
>> >
>> > Didn't the web start sometime in the '90s? Wouldn't that skew the
>> >statistics?
The internet was discovered in england, along with the jet engine, and DNA.
According to a bread commercial.
Sigh.
Paul Fuqua
From: ac...@mbox.queen.it
Subject: Re: TI 1500 preservation project
> Michael Engel <en...@math.uni-siegen.de> wrote:
>
> :For those of you who don't know the 1500 - it's a Unix system manufactured
> :by TI from 1986 to 1993 when HP took over the TI Unix systems division.
> :The 1500 came in many varieties - from single CPU 68030 systems (TI 1505)
> :to asymmetric multiprocessor systems (up to 5 CPUs - 68020/030/040 - in
> :one system) and also in a rare combination with a TI Explorer in one
> :enclosure. The system bus was TI's NuBus and the systems ran TI System V,
> :a SVR3.2 variant.
My recollection is that the whole thing started with the Nu machine out
of MIT, a 68K box based on the Nubus; I heard about it sometime in
1982-1984. I vaguely remember a company out in California manufacturing
them for a while, and I think Lisp Machines Inc built its later machines
on the same chassis. I think LMI did the Lisp/Unix thing first, too,
with both processors in the same box.
TI got into this shortly before I was associated with them, and based
the Explorer Lisp machine on the Nubus as well, in a redesigned (and
much smaller) chassis. The Lisp/Unix idea came back to life, and our
version was eventually manufactured and sold as the Explorer LX sometime
in 1986. (In our lab, the biggest impact of the LX was that it ran TeX
really really fast on the Unix side, handy for a research group.)
I always thought that the LX spawned the 1500 series, that someone saw
the possibilities of a generic Unix box, especially one that could be a
multiprocessor, but I could be wrong. As an Explorer developer, I'm
biased. (We had a multiprocessor Explorer, too, but only for
experimental use.)
It did seem appropriate that HP, a company with a slightly odd Unix,
acquired TI's slightly odd Unix not too long after acquiring Apollo's
slightly odd Unix.
Paul Fuqua
Texas Instruments, Dallas, Texas p...@hc.ti.com
Mike Amundsen
>My recollection is that the whole thing started with the Nu machine out
>of MIT, a 68K box based on the Nubus; I heard about it sometime in
>1982-1984. I vaguely remember a company out in California manufacturing
>them for a while, and I think Lisp Machines Inc built its later machines
>on the same chassis. I think LMI did the Lisp/Unix thing first, too,
>with both processors in the same box.
>
>TI got into this shortly before I was associated with them, and based
>the Explorer Lisp machine on the Nubus as well, in a redesigned (and
>much smaller) chassis. The Lisp/Unix idea came back to life, and our
>version was eventually manufactured and sold as the Explorer LX sometime
>in 1986. (In our lab, the biggest impact of the LX was that it ran TeX
>really really fast on the Unix side, handy for a research group.)
>
>I always thought that the LX spawned the 1500 series, that someone saw
>the possibilities of a generic Unix box, especially one that could be a
>multiprocessor, but I could be wrong. As an Explorer developer, I'm
>biased. (We had a multiprocessor Explorer, too, but only for
>experimental use.)
>
IIRC, Western Digital was the company that manufactured the Unix boxes. I think
TI acquired the business from WD. As I recall, the intent was to get into the
Unix workstation business.There was a 68010 based Unix processor designed at
the same time as the Explorer I processor was designed and was complete
probably 6 months before the Explorer. I don't recall when the '010 went into
production. The Unix process in the LX was based on a '020 (or '030) based
successor to the '010.
My perception was that the 1500 series was the original product idea and that
the LISPM distracted us from that mission for a while.
Mike Amundsen
ac...@mbox.queen.it
>
> Riccardo,
> Have a look at http://www.computingmuseum.com/ where a guy called Thierry
> Schembri has a site titled "The Museum of Dead, Gone and Obsolete
> computers". The site is dedicated to the collection, restoration and
> preservation of old computing devices (not just TI). He has his own
> collection of older machines, one of which he refers to as a Texas
> Instruments DSS 9900 and also as a Texas Instruments DSS 9550.
pic of the Texas Instr. family look.
> Either way,
> it is a large, old business machine.
Large?...hehe...mine (990/10) is dishwashing-machine-sized, and the
990/12 is taller than 1,5 mt!!
Btw: where did you find that page? in some engine like Altavista?
Ciao!
Rick
C Costello
ac...@mbox.queen.it wrote in message <37E5F1...@mbox.queen.it>...
>C Costello wrote:
>>
>> Riccardo,
>> Have a look at http://www.computingmuseum.com/ where a guy called Thierry
>> Schembri has a site titled "The Museum of Dead, Gone and Obsolete
>> computers". The site is dedicated to the collection, restoration and
>> preservation of old computing devices (not just TI). He has his own
>> collection of older machines, one of which he refers to as a Texas
>> Instruments DSS 9900 and also as a Texas Instruments DSS 9550.
>Thnk you very much for this link: It's the first link that contains one
>pic of the Texas Instr. family look.
a regular on this newsgroup and that I might have been telling you something
you already knew.
>
>> Either way,
>> it is a large, old business machine.
>Large?...hehe...mine (990/10) is dishwashing-machine-sized, and the
>990/12 is taller than 1,5 mt!!
Cool! I'm beginning to get a sense of nostalgia for the old computing
devices that people can't seem to get rid of quick enough these days. Even
as computer hardware becomes more advanced, there still is something
facinating about where it all came from. It wasn't so long ago that if you
had 64k of ram in your computer it was considered to be alot, and it was
only quite recently that a 1gb hdd was huge, and I'm sure that quite soon,
we'll be measuring the amount of system ram in a desktop in terrabytes.
>
>Btw: where did you find that page? in some engine like Altavista?
Actually, one of our computer "gurus" at work told me about it. There's
pretty much nothing that this guy doesn't know or can't find out.
talk to you later,
Colin.
>
>Ciao!
>
>Rick
lenoxc...@gmail.com
> Hi, rick
> r...@toad.rmkhome.com wrote:
>
> > Michael Engel <en...@math.uni-siegen.de> wrote:
> >
> > :For those of you who don't know the 1500 - it's a Unix system manufactured
> > :by TI from 1986 to 1993 when HP took over the TI Unix systems division.
> > :The 1500 came in many varieties - from single CPU 68030 systems (TI 1505)
> > :to asymmetric multiprocessor systems (up to 5 CPUs - 68020/030/040 - in
> > :one system) and also in a rare combination with a TI Explorer in one
> > :enclosure. The system bus was TI's NuBus and the systems ran TI System V,
> > :a SVR3.2 variant.
> >
> > except that it was picky about terminal - lousy termcap. It was a
> > fairly vanilla SVR3.2 although not as vanilla as Interactive UNIX.
> >
> > If I can dredge up more anecdotes about this machine from my
> > overloaded brain I will email you.
> > --
> > Rick Kelly r...@toad.rmkhome.com
>
> TI succesfully marketed? I'm talking about the TI990 family
> Anyone hve some links to point me at?
>
> THANKS
>
> Riccardo
Thanks,
Marty Green
lenoxc...@frontiernet.net
lenoxc...@gmail.com
> Hi, rick
>
> r...@toad.rmkhome.com wrote:
>
> > Michael Engel <en...@math.uni-siegen.de> wrote:
> >
> > :For those of you who don't know the 1500 - it's a Unix system manufactured
> > :by TI from 1986 to 1993 when HP took over the TI Unix systems division.
> > :The 1500 came in many varieties - from single CPU 68030 systems (TI 1505)
> > :to asymmetric multiprocessor systems (up to 5 CPUs - 68020/030/040 - in
> > :one system) and also in a rare combination with a TI Explorer in one
> > :enclosure. The system bus was TI's NuBus and the systems ran TI System V,
> > :a SVR3.2 variant.
> >
> > I was supporting a 1505 back in 1992-1995. Not a bad system at all
> > except that it was picky about terminal - lousy termcap. It was a
> > fairly vanilla SVR3.2 although not as vanilla as Interactive UNIX.
> >
> > If I can dredge up more anecdotes about this machine from my
> > overloaded brain I will email you.
> > --
> > Rick Kelly r...@toad.rmkhome.com
>
> Is there anyone collecting or preserving the older business system that
> TI succesfully marketed? I'm talking about the TI990 family
> Anyone hve some links to point me at?
>
> THANKS
>
> Riccardo
Al Kossow
> Hey, Interested in TI/990 Info? I worked in Unit Test in Austin, Texas at TI's Data Systems Division starting in 1980. I built my business designing 3rd party hardware to go in the TI 990/10 990/10A 990/12 990/12A. While at TI I worked on all of these machines. I also worked on the business system 1300 and business system 1500 when they first hit the floor. Let me know if you want to know more or see pictures. Also worked on the Explorer Project.
>
>
I have a bunch of 990's, Explorers, and one 1500 in my collection. Depot-level docs are pretty much impossible
to find for the later machines.
What I have found is under http://bitsavers.org/pdf/ti