Burroughs XE500 Setup

[ke6rwj]

Got an old Burroughs XE500 (?) setup today.. I Don't know much about it, but I was present when it was turned off and put into the barn. anyone out there with experience with these? or is this a unicorn?

Im a unix linux sysadmin, so would be cool to see it running again.

-- Chris

 

[Jaut_76]

That is a very cool system. I believe it’s a rebadged Convergent Technologies Megaframe but I could be mistaken. The 68K convergent systems are not my strong point.

 

[Al Kossow]

It is NOT a megaframe and this is the first complete system that I have heard about, unless Bear has one.
Archiving the disks and any surviving docs/media is really important.

what I have on it is at https://bitsavers.org/pdf/convergent/xe-500/

it is a really interesting multi-processor system that supported a mix of 68k unix and x86 ctos processors in the backplane

 

[Jaut_76]

It is NOT a megaframe and this is the first complete system that I have heard about, unless Bear has one.
Archiving the disks and any surviving docs/media is really important.

what I have on it is at https://bitsavers.org/pdf/convergent/xe-500/

it is a really interesting multi-processor system that supported a mix of 68k unix and x86 ctos processors in the backplane

Thank you for clarifying.

 

[bear]

unless Bear has one.

I don't, FWIW. This is the first time I've even seen a photo of one.

 

[firebirdta84]

It is NOT a megaframe and this is the first complete system that I have heard about, unless Bear has one.
Archiving the disks and any surviving docs/media is really important.

what I have on it is at https://bitsavers.org/pdf/convergent/xe-500/

it is a really interesting multi-processor system that supported a mix of 68k unix and x86 ctos processors in the backplane

Thanks for clarifying, Al. I'm curious, is this system also not a Megaframe? To me, it looks the same: https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/16hNfQi6lMaZtmk9yASicKXWRmN4fklJC

It's currently in my bedroom.

Best,
AJ

 

[Al Kossow]

requested access
I thought the megaframe came after the xe-500 which I thought was before the mightyframe

I have less information on the convergent 68K product lines because I was mostly interested
in the x86 products because at the time in the 00s there were a group of ex convergent people
who were working with CHM to preserve the history of CTOS

 

[Al Kossow]

I was collecting 68K unix systems in the 20th century, but never really did much with convergent
The state of preservation of convergent's history is a bit of a mess, and it really wasn't in bitsavers
scope, I mostly deal with the preservation of original documents and software.
I started adding "history" directories for things like newspaper/magazine clippings but haven't
done a lot of historical writing.

 

[firebirdta84]

requested access
I thought the megaframe came after the xe-500 which I thought was before the mightyframe

I have less information on the convergent 68K product lines because I was mostly interested
in the x86 products because at the time in the 00s there were a group of ex convergent people
who were working with CHM to preserve the history of CTOS

Sorry, Al, I thought anyone on the internet could browse this folder, but please try again, you should be able to see it now and give us your assessment of what it is and isn't:

https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/16hNfQi6lMaZtmk9yASicKXWRmN4fklJC

Thanks!

 

[Al Kossow]

and not a peep from the "new member" since
I wonder if they flipped it