I was computer technician at a college in the UK in the 80s. We had 2 Trivector Triton, each with magnetic tape cartridge backup and 10mb hard drive. Before moving the hard drive you had to lift the back of the drive and tighten a screw to lock the heads. The drives were very unreliable! Our systems definitely ran BOS, and we used MicroCobol for teaching programming. A variety of terminals were connected via RS232
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Trivector minicomputer / Megatronics disc drives
- Thread starter Roland Huisman
- Start date
jdreesen
Experienced Member
Said system is now with me, currently (slowly..) restoring the Diablo drive. The system MB has place for 3 identical Z80 cpu setups, of which 2 are populated. I'd welcome any info on this system, but will not probably go as far as programming in Cobol !
As noted in a previous posting, the Centre for Computing History (CCH) in Cambridge, UK has an example of the DRI Model 4000 hard drive (Diablo Model 40). The technical manual donated with the drive describes it as ‘series 4000, variant 258-99XX’, and the manual as ‘document reference 4099/issue L’ and ‘part number of technical manual 188-055’.
The history of the Model 4000 drive in the CCH collection is known in outline. It had been ordered for use with an ICL mainframe, possibly the 1900. By the time it was delivered, the mainframe had been superseded, and it was decided the hard drive was no longer appropriate. It was retained by a staff member and was subsequently donated to CCH. It had never been used and arrived at the museum in the original packing materials. There was no exchangeable cartridge with the drive. The DRI Technical Manual is also in the collection at CCH.
The link in the previous posting in this thread was to a DRI Brochure with information regarding the Model 4000 drive at:
Separately, CCH acquired at least one example of the Model 24 (24e) hard drive exerciser, believed to be designed for use with the hard drive:
The photo of the exerciser shows the ‘manufacturer’ as Newbury Data Recording, which reflects a business connection between DRI and Newbury Data.
CCH also has an example of a Trivector, in this case model/version 3:
The Trivector 3 had been used at a Cambridge business and arrived at the museum as part of a larger donation.
The history of the Model 4000 drive in the CCH collection is known in outline. It had been ordered for use with an ICL mainframe, possibly the 1900. By the time it was delivered, the mainframe had been superseded, and it was decided the hard drive was no longer appropriate. It was retained by a staff member and was subsequently donated to CCH. It had never been used and arrived at the museum in the original packing materials. There was no exchangeable cartridge with the drive. The DRI Technical Manual is also in the collection at CCH.
The link in the previous posting in this thread was to a DRI Brochure with information regarding the Model 4000 drive at:
Series 4000 Exchangeable Disc Drive - Promotional Item - Computing History
From Data Recording Instrument Company.From Data Recording Instrument Company. The company was part of the ICL Group and Data Recording Heads. This sixpage leaflet was kindly donated by Rita Otterw...
www.computinghistory.org.uk
Separately, CCH acquired at least one example of the Model 24 (24e) hard drive exerciser, believed to be designed for use with the hard drive:
Data Recording System Model 24e Exerciser - Peripheral - Computing History
Newbury Data Recording Limited Data Recording System Model 24e ExerciserThis exhibit was purchased from the MOD with the generous support of followers and friends on Twitter and FaceBook.Newbury Da...
www.computinghistory.org.uk
The photo of the exerciser shows the ‘manufacturer’ as Newbury Data Recording, which reflects a business connection between DRI and Newbury Data.
CCH also has an example of a Trivector, in this case model/version 3:
Trivector Triton 3 - Computer - Computing History
Trivector were an allEnglish company based in Hitchin, founded on 4th October 1974.Trivector were an allEnglish company based in Hitchin, founded on 4th October 1974. Previous machines in the range...
www.computinghistory.org.uk
The Trivector 3 had been used at a Cambridge business and arrived at the museum as part of a larger donation.
Hi PG31, I realise this is a very long time ago when you posted the above, only just found this forum - I too used to repair these systems as worked at Trivector in Sandy as an engineer... The pic at the start of this forum is not a Triton 3, though the other pics Mar23 2017, the first few are. We had them in various places even OCL! They ran on MicroCobal BOS
For others interest, we had the Triton 4 in many places and it was also the "mobile system" for a number of Police Groups like Essex and the Met, as a precursor to the Holmes system. Trivector also had scientific control systems in a number of Pharma such as Glaxo and others when they are seperate entities!!!
I was there 3 years, had a great time with Trivector
If anyone wishes to ping me happy to rx and reply
Antony
Last edited:
The first few pics are T3s but the disk drives are not part of the system, we used the Winchester hard drives 11 and 22 mgs.. big storage then, sealed units but would crash now and then
Hi Roland, as an ex Trivector engineer, I do not recall this being one of their machines, at least not in the time I was there around '83-'86 (if memory serves well!!!!.
There is a supposed T3 system pic on this site, which is more familiar, as are some of the pics below - https://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/52126/Trivector-Triton-3/
Antony
Hi all
As this post is referring to Trivector, you might like to know that we had a system in Buckingham Palace for the late Prince Philip, the Triton 4. The Prince even piad us a visit and I still have a pic of him coming into my repair room and talking with me!!! I have a feeling the PG31 is Paul G who used to maintain this machine! @PG31
As this post is referring to Trivector, you might like to know that we had a system in Buckingham Palace for the late Prince Philip, the Triton 4. The Prince even piad us a visit and I still have a pic of him coming into my repair room and talking with me!!! I have a feeling the PG31 is Paul G who used to maintain this machine! @PG31
jdreesen
Experienced Member
Hi Anthony,
Roland's system now resides with me. The CPU box has indeed dual Z80 CPU, and there is room on the PCB for a third Z80. The cartridge diskdrive does belong to the system, as my Trivector has a suitable controller for it on board. Also a cartridge came along with it.
Do you have any dokumentation for this system ?
Roland's system now resides with me. The CPU box has indeed dual Z80 CPU, and there is room on the PCB for a third Z80. The cartridge diskdrive does belong to the system, as my Trivector has a suitable controller for it on board. Also a cartridge came along with it.
Do you have any dokumentation for this system ?
Hi Jdreesen
As this was such a long time ago, I no longer have any docs, and not much existed then, only what was in our heads. The T3 did have a tape backup system and the CPU used to link to the old CRT and Winchester H/D via the cards that you have, all run from the motherboard. So even the memory boards were separate. What is interesting is that the barcode systems I worked on back in 1979-82 were constructed in a similar fashion - as these were also based on the z80 and then the 8080 intel chip set. The priginal barcode was all wire-wrapped using the TTL approach before we moved to the 8080 system. The Tritons were similar running BOS microcobal. Each base unit was capable of running a 11 or 22 mg winchester drives and 4 terminals, 1 master and 3 slaves. We used to be able to extend the T4 to add addition screens through extended sub motherboards with memory cards for the screens and smilar for the hard drives. All used tape backlups. They were used in all sorts of places, such as Police forces, doctors surgeries and British layland and libraries, to name a few, as well as Buckingham Place!! Sorry cant help much more. I have a feeling PG31 might be able to help more, if he is who I think he is and worked there with me at the time! (just waiting to be cleared by the moderators!!)
Trivector was pretty innovative at the time, Les, main owner and brain behind the developments was really good. I remember him reviewing the Rodine 5.25 hard drives at the time, a new idea from the floppies! We used these in much of the scientific equipment after this, some of these systems were early forms of DNA separation in gel, like using blotting paper to spread liquid/colours, and then using the "computer" to to the data integration.
Yep, and there was a switch on the T4 that would do that for you eventually. However, that proved troublesome at times... esp with Doctors and staff!!!! But to move, you are right, there was the physical scerew at the back!!!
In fact we had a lot of "fun" with the T4 that was being used by the Police Groups, esp the Met, whio moved these systems around regularly, and we, the engineers, esp based in Sandy, were in the cop shops a lot sorting out the drives that they forgot to lock!!!
Hi Jonhales
For your last post re Trivector, it moves to Sandy after a wbile, as I worked with them in that premises from 83-86, so I am curious, and need to send a note to the link (computinghistory) as to the date it supposed closed, because it was still running a few years after I left. I seem to recall it got taken over not longer after but cannot recall by who. No idea as to who is still around from that point. Les (cannot remember his surname) was the MD and main designer/eng at the time.
Hi Chuck, used to fix these systems back inthe '80s, the T4 and the one you mention, the TriLab systems - many of these systems were very innovative for their time
PG31
Veteran Member
Hi, No. I'm not the same PG.
Hi PG31, my apologies for thinking you might be. I worked with Paul at Trivector and when you emntioned you also used to work on their equipment I was hoping you would be. No worries, thanks for responding in any case.