youtube video of a runnning XDS Sigma mainframe with lots of nice peripherals

[P Gebhardt]

----- Ursprüngliche Message -----
> Von: Rich Alderson <RichA at LivingComputerMuseum.org>
> An: 'General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts' <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
> CC: 
> Gesendet: 22:15 Montag, 2.November 2015
> Betreff: RE: youtube video of a runnning XDS Sigma mainframe with lots of nice peripherals
> 
> From: Lee Courtney
> Sent: Saturday, October 31, 2015 10:37 AM
> 
>>  I posted the video you linked to. The machines on the video belonged to
>>  George Plue, who ran a medical billing service bureau in Flagstaff AZ. They
>>  are now located at the Living Computer Museum (LCM) in Seattle.
> 
>>  George originally ran the Computer Center at Anderson University in Berrien
>                                                Andrews
>>  Springs MI, and the center ran several generations of SDS the XDS Sigma
>>  mainframes over the years. When Xerox decided to get out of the mainframe
>>  computing business in August 1975 the market for Sigmas essentially
>>  collapsed despite Honeywell agreeing to buy the carcass of the business.
>>  George and a partner got into the used Sigma HW business and he maintained
>>  a stock of HW, SW and documentation at his home in MI. More info here:
>>  http://www.andrews.edu/~calkins/profess/SDSigma7.htm
> 
> George's partner was Stan Ritland, who came from a family of doctors but who
> did not like medicine as a career path himself.  They located the business in
> Flagstaff to take advantage of the built in customer base made up of Stan's
> three brothers; their offices were across the street from the main hospital,
> and they quickly grew.
> 
> (George, an only child, met Stan when they were 8 years old.  They were best
> friends for nearly 60 years, and George spent as much time at Stan's home as
> at his own growing up.)
> 
>>  I'm unclear on when he acquired his second home in Flagstaff, but he 
> had a
>>  typical ranch style house in Flagstaff. The big difference being that he
>>  had installed a significantly larger electrical feed with three-phase power
>>  than one would find in a residence, and the downstairs family and bedrooms
>>  were used as the machine room in the video.
> 
> The reason George *bought* the house was that there was already a 220V service
> running across the back of the property, so that running 220V into the house
> was a lot less expensive than usual.
> 
> The basement in which the computers and peripherals were a tilt-up add-on to
> the original house.
> 
>>  I visited George in the early 2000's (I think) and at that time he had 
> a
>>  fully configured Sigma-9 and Sigma-8 mainframes, along with several tape
>>  drives, and string of DASD. Yes, the machine room was strewn with
>>  printouts, docs, partially finished projects, tapes, etc. But all the
>>  machines worked and it was glorious. ;-)
> 
> It's a Sigma 6, not a Sigma 8.  The 6 was a clone of the 7 and 9 built for 
> the
> education market with all of the usually unbundled products included in the
> license for CP-V.
> 
>>  Unfortunately George passed away a few years ago. All the HW and SW that
>>  was in running condition was rescued by the LCM in Seattle. I know LCM has
>>  had someone with Sigma experience working on and off on the Sigma to get it
>>  running again. Not sure of the current status. But, that would be an
>>  awesome time-sharing system alongside the DEC-20 they have.
> 
> Not just running condition.  100,000 pounds of gear, including the 9, 6, and a
> 7 that had been retired in the 90s, spares for all of them, the 8 running disk
> drives and 4 running tape drives, along with about 20 more disk drives (the
> older 50MB hydraulic units) from the 7.  Five 24' trucks, driven by Stan and 
> his
> brothers from Flagstaff to Seattle.
> 
> My colleague Keith and I spent 3 days in Flagstaff deinstalling everything,
> while Stan, 2 of his brothers, and George's wife, daughter, and 
> granddaughter
> looked on, labeled, packed, fed us, forklifted onto the trucks, and celebrated
> George's life.
> 
>>  There was also a group in AZ working on restoring a Sigma mainframe, maybe
>>  some of Georges collection. He also had a complete Sigma-7 and a boatload
>>  of Honeywell peripherals in his garage in Flagstaff. The AZ group was very
>>  energetic, but I have not heard any updates in several years. Having worked
>>  on CHM's first restoration, the IBM 1620, from start to finish I know 
> its a
>>  huge undertaking to get even a relatively straightforward machine up and
>>  running.
> 
> No, George helped them, but he was running a Sigma support business; he was not
> inclined to give things away.
> 
> George Plue was a true wizard.  One of his creations was a SCSI interface for
> the Sigma 9 which allowed him to copy magnetic tape files to DAT (not, as we
> all know now, the best choice of medium, but remarkable for all that).
> 
> George was also a true gentleman, as is Stan Ritland.  It was a privilege to
> know George for the short time that I did.  We met about a year and a half
> before his untimely passing, thanks to Lee Courtney.
> 
>                                                                 Rich
> 


Lee and Rich,
thanks a million for sharing your life experiences in this area and your memories about George and his commitment regarding the preservation of these Sigma systems!!!

Kind regards,
Pierre


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Pierre's collection of classic computers moved to: http://www.digitalheritage.de