Burroughs B80 rescued

[Jules Richardson]

Mr Ian Primus wrote:
> Well, I drove up to Canada yesterday and picked up the
> Burroughs B80.

Nice. (We've got a B90 - anyone know if that's a similar - later - beast, or 
some totally different machine?)

> Unfortunately, while the two sections of the main unit
> (CPU and console) will unbolt, they can't easily be
> separated because of the massively complex wiring
> harness inside.

That seems to be quite common on old systems - they weren't supposed to be 
moved much, and engineers would commission/decommission them accordingly. The 
guys at the nuclear station where our Marconi came from actually put 
connectors into the wiring loom in order to make life a bit easier.

I presume connectors were just seen as a weak point in the system once (I 
doubt expense came into it, not in the days when computers cost vast amounts 
of money anyway)

> The power supply was an interesting beast, and I am
> unsure of it's purpose.  The B80 has a hefty power
> supply inside it - with transformers and regulators,
> and seems perfectly capable of being connected to the
> wall directly. But along with the system unit is a
> power supply box - 23" wide, 30" tall and 29" deep. 

That's big. Our Marconi (four cabs, each about 8'x2'x1') has a step-down unit, 
but that's still only about 2'x1'x1' in size, and I imagine the machine's a 
lot more power-hungry than this B80.

Our BCL Susie machine (which I think is roughly the same physical size as the 
B80) has line conditioning transformers, but they're integral to its desk and 
not large at all (maybe 12"x8"x8").

Now, our Elliott 803 is a different matter - big beast, much bigger than the 
B80, but it does have an external power cabinet about the size you describe. 
I'm pretty certain that one is a UPS too, having room for a couple of big 
wet-cell batteries inside. Cabinet output I think I was told is DC at around 40V.

Again, what you have seems a bit big for the job it does (given the machine 
size), but a UPS would certainly push the size up by quite a bit versus line 
conditioning / AC step-down / step-up.

 > I'll know more when I can pull the covers off it.

In this hobby, the speculation's often more fun than the reality ;)

cheers

Jules