anyone still here?

[Dave McGuire]

Hi folks, I hope there's someone still here!

We at the Large Scale Systems Museum have an SC072. Are there any
other SiCortex machines still around?

-Dave

--
Dave McGuire, AK4HZ
New Kensington, PA

[Rick Royston]

I sold mine to a grad student in CA. He was working on a PHD project. It was up and running his sw the day it arrived. I haven’t seen another one since then. Very cool system.

Rick

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[Dave McGuire]

Oh neat, I wonder if he still has it.

Yeah it really is a neat architecture.

-Dave

[Kem Stewart]

Dave, Rick, Jud, et al,

There may be a (possibly working) SC648 (4 boards in a tall 19" rack) on the MIT campus.  In early 2018, after 11 years of more-or-less continuous operation, is was disconnected and turned off by the IT department because no one was using it anymore, and they needed the aisle space in the 4th floor Stata Center computer room where Prof Alan Edelman had had it installed in 2007.  In the summer of 2018 I arranged to donate it to the LCM (Paul Allen's Living Computer Museum, in Seattle).  They accepted the donation, arranged shipping--then just days before they were scheduled to pick it up, Paul Allen died, the terms of his will were apparently not what the Museum expected, and they froze all donations.  Several months later--early 2019--they apologetically rescinded their acceptance of the donation.

Those of us who had kept it running or used it--chiefly myself, Larry Stewart (SiCortex software architect and engineer), and Prof Chris Terman (retired by this time) kicked around various ideas about what to do with it--but then the pandemic hit, the LCM closed--and now appears to be permanently shut down--so frankly, I just gave up on it, having gotten busy with other projects.  I didn't know of your organization's existence before now.

I can ask the MIT IT department where it is, and go take a look at it.  It might even be possible to resurrect it.  Larry would help me in a heartbeat.  If it's still in one piece I'm sure he and I can get it going again.  It was such a cool thing, and a whole bunch of really smart and driven folks put a huge amount of our lives into that doomed but fascinating project.

Would the LSSM be interested in acquiring it?  The cost of shipping it to Pittsburgh wouldn't be all that much.

I've attached a snapshot of the correspondence I had with the LCM, including a brief description of the machine and its history.  LMK if there's any interest and I'll reach out to my MIT contacts and find out what happened to it.  They knew I was working on getting it donated four years ago--it's possible it's still in a corner somewhere, just gathering dust.

Best regards,

Kem (William K) Stewart (former VP of Hardware Engineering, SiCortex)  (K5KEM)
kem.s...@alum.mit.edu
781-674-2301

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[Lawrence Stewart (Larry)]

I can help!    Stil have all the bits :)

On Dec 12, 2023, at 6:22 PM, Kem Stewart <kem.s...@alum.mit.edu> wrote:



To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sicortex-users/CAGi5_sxNRXp2yqoT2%3DOYa7yda56QeMx%2BRm8eOe6b%3D1MdgEy6%3Dw%40mail.gmail.com.

<SiCortexSC648DonationLCM.pdf>

[Dave McGuire]

On 12/12/23 18:22, Kem Stewart wrote:
> There may be a (possibly working) SC648 (4 boards in a tall 19" rack) on
> the MIT campus.

...

> I didn't know of your organization's existence before now.

We've been open to the public for eight years, but we're all
engineers who know nothing about marketing, so.. ;)

> I can ask the MIT IT department where it is, and go take a look at it.
> It might even be possible to resurrect it.  Larry would help me in a
> heartbeat.  If it's still in one piece I'm sure he and I can get it
> going again.  It was such a cool thing, and a whole bunch of really
> smart and driven folks put a huge amount of our lives into that doomed
> but fascinating project.
>
> Would the LSSM be interested in acquiring it?  The cost of shipping it
> to Pittsburgh wouldn't be all that much.

Yes, thank you, we'd love to have it, and I'm certain we could get it
going. Of course you and Larry would be more than welcome to work on it
here.

I followed it with great interest when it was on the market. Long
before LSSM existed, I worked on a project that used a couple of SC072s,
I really enjoyed working on them. I was able to retain one of those
systems; that's the one that's at LSSM now.

We have some (smaller) Cray systems up and running, and a Parsytec
Transputer cluster that we just brought back up, if these would entice a
visit. :)

> I've attached a snapshot of the correspondence I had with the LCM,
> including a brief description of the machine and its history.  LMK if
> there's any interest and I'll reach out to my MIT contacts and find out
> what happened to it.  They knew I was working on getting it donated four
> years ago--it's possible it's still in a corner somewhere, just
> gathering dust.

Yes, please check on it. We'd be pleased and honored to give it a
home where we can tell its story. Please let me know what you find. I
really hope it's intact!

For LSSM business I normally use mcg...@lssmuseum.org, but I can be
reached here just as well.

Thanks,

[Aaron Brooks]

I still have an SC072. I've had aspirations of firing it up but life has moved on. I think I could be compelled to give it to a good home, you know, 15 years later...

How are y'all, BTW? I was thinking it was getting to the point where we should have a get together. I failed to follow-through on the last one so, sorry for dropping that.

Hope everyone is well!

Much love,

Aaron

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[Dave McGuire]

On 12/12/23 19:11, Aaron Brooks wrote:
> I still have an SC072. I've had aspirations of firing it up but life has
> moved on. I think I could be compelled to give it to a good home, you
> know, 15 years later...

We'd certainly adopt it here at LSSM. We've already got an SC072, as
I mentioned earlier, but the more the merrier.

> How are y'all, BTW? I was thinking it was getting to the point where we
> should have a get together. I failed to follow-through on the last one
> so, sorry for dropping that.

If you mean a physical get-together, we'd gladly host that at LSSM,
in the ambiance' of the machines. :-)

[Aaron Brooks]

Oh, heh. Just realized this was SiCortex users and not ex-SiCortex!

[Kem Stewart]

Alright then, Dave--I'll see if I can track it down.

Kem (William K) Stewart
kem.s...@alum.mit.edu
781-674-2301

[Dave McGuire]

Ah, right. But the offer stands; and if the MIT machine still exists
and comes down here, at least there'd be a "bigger" member of the family
in the room.

-Dave

[Dave McGuire]

Running the SC072 today, it had been a while. Came right up and is
running great.

Any word from the folks at Stata?

-Dave

On 12/12/23 21:39, Kem Stewart wrote:
> Alright then, Dave--I'll see if I can track it down.
>
> Kem (William K) Stewart

> kem.s...@alum.mit.edu <mailto:kem.s...@alum.mit.edu>

> <mailto:mcg...@lssmuseum.org>, but I can be

[Kem Stewart]

Dave et al,

No news yet--I've been swamped, and they're short-staffed because of the holidays.  I emailed the CSAIL ops staff but have not heard back yet.  May not hear anything until after New Year's.  Will advise as soon as I learn something.

Best,

Kem

[Dave McGuire]

Hi Kem, and happy holidays. Thanks for keeping after this. We've
cleared the way for the finances to come pick it up, and can head up at
any time.

Thanks,
-Dave

On 12/27/23 22:34, Kem Stewart wrote:
> Dave et al,
>
> No news yet--I've been swamped, and they're short-staffed because of the
> holidays.  I emailed the CSAIL ops staff but have not heard back yet.
> May not hear anything until after New Year's.  Will advise as soon as I
> learn something.
>
> Best,
>
> Kem
>
> On Thu, Dec 14, 2023 at 6:29 PM Dave McGuire <mcg...@neurotica.com
> <mailto:mcg...@neurotica.com>> wrote:
>
>
>    Running the SC072 today, it had been a while.  Came right up and is
> running great.
>
>    Any word from the folks at Stata?
>
>              -Dave
>
> On 12/12/23 21:39, Kem Stewart wrote:
> > Alright then, Dave--I'll see if I can track it down.
> >
> > Kem (William K) Stewart
> > kem.s...@alum.mit.edu <mailto:kem.s...@alum.mit.edu>

> <mailto:kem.s...@alum.mit.edu <mailto:kem.s...@alum.mit.edu>>

> > 781-674-2301
> >
> > On Tue, Dec 12, 2023 at 7:10 PM Dave McGuire
> <mcg...@neurotica.com <mailto:mcg...@neurotica.com>

> >     <mailto:mcg...@lssmuseum.org