PDP-6 questions

[William Maddox]

--- William Donzelli <wdonzelli at gmail.com> wrote:

> > > 3) Are the stories about the Boston Computer
> Museum receiving a
> > > complete PDP-6 and then chopping it up to sell
> as gifts truth or
> > > urban legend?
> 
> Until someone comes up with hard evidence that BCM
> had one then
> scrapped it - something like photographic evidence
> of the PDP-6 in the
> collection, inclusion in an official inventory (and
> then not), or
> otherwise - I discount it as just a story.

I have in my possession a PDP-6 module purchased by
myself at the BCM museum store in 1989.  It may have
come from spares rather than being stripped from a
machine in the collection, but it was a very large
double-height, double-width system module of the type
that I believe was only used on the PDP-6, and it was
described as a PDP-6 board when I bought it.  I find
it highly suspicious that Philco and CDC 6600-style
modules were also on sale.  I have several modules
purchased at the same time that look identical to
those in the Philco on display now at CHM, formerly at
BCM.  The CHM's machine is conspicuously missing large
numbers of modules, as in an entire backplane stripped
clean. Not that this proves anything, but I left after
that visit to BCM in 1989 with the distinct impression
that machines from the collection had been stripped
for
souvenirs.    The BCM seemed to be much more
concerned with education, including with respect to
contemporary machines at the time, rather than
historical preservation and scholarship.  Despite
this,
Gwen was there when I visited, and, although I had not
met her previously, she saw me and apparently detected
that I was not all that interested in the "kiddie
stuff" and took me into the back storage area and
showed me the "good stuff".  She certainly appreciated
the historical machines, and was like an excited kid
showing it off. It is hard to imagine machines being
stripped or scrapped on her watch.

--Bill