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PDP 8-i for sale on ebay June 2016

I

inotarobot

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PDP 8-i system Listed on ebay.com 29th June 2016, at starting price us$1500 .. location Mahwah, New Jersey, United States

Well I do wonder what the shipping cost of this would be to Australia.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-DEC...801760?hash=item2caea7ece0:g:ucMAAOSwOVpXcsiI

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PDP8I Info. . .
. . . DEC PDP 8/I Computer
. . . [M-26]
. . . [L-625]
. . . 8K memory
. . . 220VAC
. . . no Controllers for the RK05 or High Speed Reader / Punch
. . . does have Teletype XMIT and RECV modules

All Power Supply fans are working. A lot of lights are out. Less than a dozen working.
When we first turned the system on, we were able to toggle in and run a simple
keyboard echo program and memory tests. Since so many lights are out, the memory
tests were designed to halt when error was detected between any written and read data.

After first turn on, the system would run as described below, but would stop working after
running for an hour or so.

Using the KB Echo routine as a quick reference, reloading did not help. Program would look like
it was running but nothing was happening on the terminal.

After being powered down a while, turning the system back on would reveal it was working again.
The time to next failure was shorter. After several trials, nothing seemed to run properly. Program would
appear to be running but because of lack of lights on the console, could not tell what it
was doing. Putting in short jump about routines with Program Halts would never halt. Using
Single Instruction/Single Step switches revealed Computer was looping somewhere in memory.

The above paragraph describes the current behavior of this computer!

The following describes the behavior of the system when first fired up:

Refering to the program listings below. . .
. . . the Lower Memory Test ran in Memory Banks 0 and 1 without halting.
. . . the Upper Memory Test had a problem in Bank 0 but ran OK in Bank 1.
. . . the Keyboard Echo routine worked in both Banks but not in higher pages of Bank 0.

. . . . . . VT220 Setup = VT200 Mode, 7 Bit Ctl's
. . . . . . XMIT=110 RECV=XMIT
. . . . . . 8 Bits No Parity
. . . . . . 1 STOP Bit
. . . . . . 20 mA Port
. . . . . . Disc. 2 S Delay

RK05 Info. . .
. . . RK05 DECPACK 2200BPI
. . . RK05AA DECPACK
. . . RK05P 5483
. . . RK05 5489
. . . no Cable has been found
. . . no Controller has been found

PDP 8/I HIGH SPEED PAPER TAPE READER / PUNCH. . .
. . . PC0
. . . [1544]
. . . ?PC04?

Cabinet . . .
. . . [M-26]
. . . [1323]
. . . no side panels
. . . no back door

This computer was in our Company's Computer Room along with PDP8E and PDP11 systems and peripherals.
As we turned more to PC's, these systems were phased out and when we closed our old facility in 2003.
The equipment therein was taken apart and put in storage.

The computers in the "Computer Room" shared some peripherals. The RK05 may not have been used on this
computer, but by the 8E in the adjacent cab.
 
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I am so cranky I still cannot find my 8i backplane after my house move

Maria, the better half, says she could bring this complete 8i back in her handbag, on her return from USA later in year.

She thinks she could declare it as her portable computer. Mind you I am not sure how she would go getting it through the X ray machine

Ok its not quite the kitchen sink, but yes it could fit in a ladies handbag, with a TINY bit of shoving.

AND No she is NOT a Russian Olympic weight lifter.
 
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tradde said:
I'd guess around $5k.
Click to expand...

It is a nicely configured 8/i with 8k, and I think EAE. The RK05 won't work in the 8/i without a really rare DW8E chassis and an expensive RK8-E controller.

Someone with deep pockets is buying PDP-8 items on eBay for some really steep prices. It will be interesting to see the final price.
 
m_thompson said:
It is a nicely configured 8/i with 8k, and I think EAE. The RK05 won't work in the 8/i without a really rare DW8E chassis and an expensive RK8-E controller.

Someone with deep pockets is buying PDP-8 items on eBay for some really steep prices. It will be interesting to see the final price.
Click to expand...

Yes, it has EAE.
 
We have had a few discussions about leaving the 4k non-EAE 8/i at the RICM as it is and just run the 4k monitor, or to upgrade it to 8k and add EAE like this 8/i.
 
Relisted at original price of $1500, but now for CPU complex and rack only.

Does not include RK05 drive or PC08 paper tape unit.

Supposedly these will be listed separately.
 
NeXT said:
Sellers who part out machines for individual sale are the scummiest IMHO.
Click to expand...

I though the seller had said the RK05 was actually connected to a 8e that was in an adjacent rack in their computer room. Just maybe this seller has realized this and will be listing the 8e (if they also still have that machine) as a separate sale.

Seller did say "no Controller has been found" for the RK05 so thats probably why they chose to separate it and the PC08 from the sale of the 8i.

From the original listing seller put the following comment

""This computer was in our Company's Computer Room along with PDP8E and PDP11 systems and peripherals.
As we turned more to PC's, these systems were phased out and when we closed our old facility in 2003.
The equipment therein was taken apart and put in storage.

The computers in the "Computer Room" shared some peripherals. The RK05 may not have been used on this
computer, but by the 8E in the adjacent cab.""

So in this instance NeXT, I think the seller is doing the right thing 'parting out' this machine.
 
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He could of at least been not so lazy as to recycle photos. He's gonna make at least $1000 on this. I doubt five minutes of your time to take new photos is that expensive.
 
NeXT said:
He could of at least been not so lazy as to recycle photos. He's gonna make at least $1000 on this. I doubt five minutes of your time to take new photos is that expensive.
Click to expand...

Well, then he'd need to unship the RK05 and PC08 from the rack (since the full-rack goes with the 8/I), and I can tell you from experience that takes significantly more than 5 minutes! We'll see what he does for those other items when he lists. Crop photo? Put X in a different location :->?

But he really should have done it. He will eventually have to do it.

OTOH, I've seen too many sellers be *much* less clear about what-in-the-pic is included-or-not in the sale.
 
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