Found in trash: Honeywell magnetic tapes and 8 inch floppies

[gyromatical]

Who can resist a pile of trash on the side of the road with antiques? Not me.
On a routine trash picking outing there was a crate of these tapes and floppies so rather than let it go to the landfill
I took it to my own personal landfill (my house :D). From the looks of them, whoever threw them away was
a Honeywell programmer. Some labels read "Property of Honeywell" and include a long warning not to distribute.

Due to the labels and printouts they appear to be development prototypes and system software, memory dumps,
games and so on. Most of the tapes and discs are labeled either "MOD 200" or "MD 200", some are "MOD 400" so
maybe they are from the Honeywell 200, but I cannot find info regarding the Honeywell 200 having a tape drive or
8" floppy drive. Also included were two 5 1/4" floppies and hundreds of pages of printouts for each disk, full of codes
and other indecipherable items.

They've been sitting around here for a couple of months, and I found this forum last week so after reading it for
probably 8 hours straight decided to sign up today. So, hello! Hopefully somebody can identify these mystery items.
Plenty of more photos available if you'd like, but for now here is just one tape. AA battery included for size comparison.

 

[krebizfan]

Honeywell was part of the partnership that operated Magnetic Peripherals, Inc. MPI documentation is often listed under CDC.

 

[gyromatical]

Honeywell was part of the partnership that operated Magnetic Peripherals, Inc. MPI documentation is often listed under CDC.

Thanks for that information but I'm not sure what you mean by this.
Do you happen know which system these tapes belong to?

 

[Al Kossow]

Hopefully somebody can identify these mystery items.
Plenty of more photos available if you'd like

Those aren't tapes, they are removable cartridge disks.

They are way too new to be for the H200, these are probably off a system from the 80's

Pictures of the labels off the carts and floppies would be helpful, along with the first couple of
pages from the listings.

 

[gyromatical]

Pictures of the labels off the carts and floppies would be helpful, along with the first couple of
pages from the listings.

Here you go. Uploaded to Imgur since they wouldn't all fit in here. http://imgur.com/a/Grl64

 

[krebizfan]

That is a combination I did not expect to see: OASIS and games in the same lot. I don't know Honeywell mid-size systems well enough to know which one it came from.

The OASIS I am thinking of is big government contracting software that runs on big hardware. The software you have may be for something completely different; the abbreviation is common.

 

[Chuck(G)]

I believe that the cartridges go with the Microsystem 6/20:

 

[Gerardcjat]

What cartridge TYPE are shown in pict. 2 and 3 ?? Never saw that before ??

 

[Al Kossow]

Here you go. Uploaded to Imgur since they wouldn't all fit in here. http://imgur.com/a/Grl64

Thanks! I'm guessing GCOS 6 MOD400, which fits the time frame and size of the machine.
Interesting find. There isn't much software around that I know of for the DPS 6 Mod 400
http://bitsavers.informatik.uni-stu...0level6/CZ03_GCOS6concepts_May88/CZ03-02.html

 

[Al Kossow]

Here you go. Uploaded to Imgur since they wouldn't all fit in here. http://imgur.com/a/Grl64

If you'd want to get rid of these, I'd accept them into the collection at the Computer History Museum

 

[Al Kossow]

If you'd want to get rid of these, I'd accept them into the collection at the Computer History Museum

although it may find at better home at
http://www.museodelcomputer.org/ind...ie?PHPSESSID=2e65e2576f04354c50c51634a139ca37

which is where Chuck got the the picture from

 

[gyromatical]

Thank you all for the information, you are amazing! Glad you have solved this mystery.

Thanks! I'm guessing GCOS 6 MOD400, which fits the time frame and size of the machine.
Interesting find. There isn't much software around that I know of for the DPS 6 Mod 400
http://bitsavers.informatik.uni-stut...8/CZ03-02.html

Thank you, that hit the nail on the head really! That's got to be it. Here's an excerpt from http://www.feb-patrimoine.com/projet/gcos6/gcos6.htm
which further confirms this as it mentions MOD200 as well (which is written on some of the diskettes):

Three versions of the operating system, with the same programming system, were contemplated to cover different specific needs. All of them were introduced under the name GCOS 6.

Mod 200 was an entry version of the system, supporting low capacity discs and oriented around direct data entry from terminals.

Mod 400 was a "standard" batch operating system also used as a loader of process-control applications.

Mod 600 was to be a time-sharing operating system, borrowing its concepts from level 64 level 2B and 4A back-up aborted projects and from Multics.

A brief search also brings up this scanned manual, "MINI 6 GCOS MOD 400/MFS System Building", for those interested: http://oldcomputers.dyndns.org/public/pub/rechner/honeywell/manuals/mini6gcos6mod400-mfs_systembuilding_bw.pdf

Assortment of misc. information and manual links: http://www.digplanet.com/wiki/Honeywell_Level_6

If you'd want to get rid of these, I'd accept them into the collection at the Computer History Museum

I will certainly keep you in mind, your museum is always in my thoughts!
If I get the nerve I may go back to their house and ask if they have anything else. They had a yard sale months before finding this trash pile and we bought a pile of antiques from their barn so maybe they have other stuff kicking around or know previous co-workers with artifacts. It could be an awkward moment approaching them saying "I found this in your trash and .... "

 

[gyromatical]

although it may find at better home at
http://www.museodelcomputer.org/ind...ie?PHPSESSID=2e65e2576f04354c50c51634a139ca37

which is where Chuck got the the picture from

The poor thing, it looks like it was rotting in someones basement!