Kiel PDP-10 [was RE: pdp8/e frontpanel lamps]

[Rich Alderson]

> From: Allison
> Sent: Monday, October 26, 2009 1:13 PM

    [ responding to Tony Duell's comments regarding "Never run again" ]

> The ususal reason for that pronouncement is the backplane is summarily 
> messedup beyond belief.  In some cases due to shorts or other "errors" 
> large sections of wire wrap being cooked.  (I presume this is an early 
> 10 and not a 20).  That also means that any board plugged into it is 
> suspect as well.  Many hours of proble and verify, unpowered!

This is almost certainly a KI10-based system, so a very early DECsystem-10.
(The marketing name was coined for these systems, to move away from the
small-system connotation that had overtaken "PDP-x".)

> Repairable yes, lots of work big time yes.  Worth fixing during it's 
> commercial days, rarely.

In commercial days, a backplane that screwed up (a Technical Term(TM))
would have been pulled and returned to the factory.  I saw that done on
a KL10 at Stanford.

> At a minimum it should be kept intact as an example if parts cannot be 
> used to restore another.

Absolutely.


Rich Alderson
Vintage Computing Server Engineer
Vulcan, Inc.
505 5th Avenue S, Suite 900
Seattle, WA 98104

mailto:RichA at vulcan.com
mailto:RichA at LivingComputerMuseum.org

http://www.PDPplanet.org/
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