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Convergent Technologies and "Mightyframe" hardware

NeXT

NeXT

Veteran Member
Joined
Oct 22, 2008
Messages
8,406
Location
Kamloops, BC, Canada
There was a thread a couple years back on this forum that discussed these machines a little and if I recall there was a LOT of futzing, a lot of missing resources and a lot of "this is the only thing known to still exist."

Paging firebirdta84, your knowledge has been requested as your work is apparently the only stuff that pops up on he Internet ;)

Well I've been approached being offered three mightyframes, three boxes of Ctix, hardware and administration documentation and at least one box full of Convergent branded QIC tapes. I have not yet powered anything on and on inspection MOST of the tape bands are still intact (and a few others have snapped) and two of the three machines still have hard disks. It's a hell of a lot of stuff, so before I go loading up the AMC with the obvious "YES! TAKE IT!" I want to know what can be really done with it besides it being your typical 80's Unix machine with lots of ASCII teminal I/O or if there is someone who wants to dump all these tapes/scan these binders for archival sake? It's in no risk of being thrown out but the person selling would prefer that he move it all in one deal due to rarity.
 
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Okay I'll see if I can crack a deal and for the time being get the docs and tapes sent to either of you for archiving. You have a message bear.
Stay tuned.
 
NeXT said:
Oh, you run mightyframe.blogspot?
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No, I'm not the one who runs mightyframe.blogspot but had some mailcontact with him. Reading my posted text now I see that my text can be misinterpreted as the order of the links should be with some explanation.

I store files on oldcomputers... for personal use only. ;)
 
The systems are loaded up and on their way to their new home while the books and tapes have been delivered for analysis and archiving. This may take a few months due to priorities but I would expect there to be an exponentially larger number of resources available for the Convergent folks in the next year.
 
I was a field engineer for convergent.

we were a tiny unheard of giant making a lot of defense unix systems for ATT & Unisys among others. Minimum order to start our assembly run was 100,000 units. Almost nothing we built was sold with your name on it.

Bring us your design and we would built it or tell us what you want and we will design/build. Reason we went away was stock market crash. Unisys told us we could sell to them or they would xcle their contract and wait until out stock was ten cents then just buy us up. They were worried another company may buy us and at that time we were Unisys main manufacturer.

There is a huge collector of Convergent hardware/software in Las Vegas, he also owns the car from Knight Rider.
 
Hehe, good old DARPA funded tech companies. ;)

I've actually not yet powered any of the systems up yet however the tapes and documentation was sent off last summer for archiving. It should begin popping up on I believe Bitsavers pretty soon and I'm hoping to get everything back before the end of the month.
 
NeXT, geez, over a year late to respond here, sorry!!! I guess I get emails on PMs, but I don't get notifications like this, so if I don't check often, I miss things. Searching for other Convergent stuff today, I come upon this. OK, so nice work saving this stuff...(hoping you did, of course). Now that you *finally* have my attention, is there anything left to discuss (I hope)? And how can I help???!!!

Best, AJ

NeXT said:
There was a thread a couple years back on this forum that discussed these machines a little and if I recall there was a LOT of futzing, a lot of missing resources and a lot of "this is the only thing known to still exist."

Paging firebirdta84, your knowledge has been requested as your work is apparently the only stuff that pops up on he Internet ;)

Well I've been approached being offered three mightyframes, three boxes of Ctix, hardware and administration documentation and at least one box full of Convergent branded QIC tapes. I have not yet powered anything on and on inspection MOST of the tape bands are still intact (and a few others have snapped) and two of the three machines still have hard disks. It's a hell of a lot of stuff, so before I go loading up the AMC with the obvious "YES! TAKE IT!" I want to know what can be really done with it besides it being your typical 80's Unix machine with lots of ASCII teminal I/O or if there is someone who wants to dump all these tapes/scan these binders for archival sake? It's in no risk of being thrown out but the person selling would prefer that he move it all in one deal due to rarity.
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danielbooneamerica said:
I was a field engineer for convergent.

.....

There is a huge collector of Convergent hardware/software in Las Vegas, he also owns the car from Knight Rider.
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Yes, it is me you speak of, danielbooneamerica. Sorry, still WAY late getting back to the party here.

You being a field engineer for Convergent, and knowing of me by reputation, have we exchanged emails over the years perhaps? Sorry, I'm not recognizing your screen name here to match with my list of real names of people I have spoken with.

Anyone here, feel free to email me directly at http://mightyframe.blogspot.com/p/contact.html

That has always gotten the fastest response from me, no matter what's going on in my world.

PMs on this forum work as well, as I get notifications sent to the same email address. Sorry again!

Best,
AJ
 
fritzeflink said:
No, I'm not the one who runs mightyframe.blogspot but had some mailcontact with him. Reading my posted text now I see that my text can be misinterpreted as the order of the links should be with some explanation.

I store files on oldcomputers... for personal use only. ;)
Click to expand...

Nope, that's me. I run mightyframe.blogspot.com Hope to catch up soon here!

AJ
 
My experience with Convergent was playing rats. I'd put a version of Fig-Forth on it to work on the wire bonding hardware we made for wire overflow. I recall the box had several Multibus slots. I made a digital to analog DC motor control to work on the Multibus. It was 24 inches with .0005 inch positioning. Unlike stepper motors, one could control the 50+ lb table so that it would stop before putting much more than a small dent in a yellow no.2 pencil. I never tried it on a real finger but as long as the person didn't yank it, it wouldn't crush it.
Dwight
 
NeXT said:
Thank you very much Al. I can see the scanned docs are in http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/convergent/68K/mightyframe/ while the tape archives made it into http://www.bitsavers.org/bits/Convergent/miniframe/ctix_cartridge_tape_images/

Have a merry christmas.
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Yes, A very hearty thanks to ALL of you for making this possible! NeXT, for saving the machines, tapes, docs, and caring enough to get them archived. Bear, and especially Al, who I'm told did the bulk of the imaging work...thank you ALL for getting them archived archived digitally!

Yes, very Merry Christmas!

Best,
AJ
 
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