[Help/ID] Wooden Case ETH Lilith / Modula-2 Machine

[Craigmg]

Very long time lurker, first time poster.

I’m volunteering at a museum and we’re starting to put together information on various artifacts. This machine (I believe it is a Lilith) caught my eye, and the more I read the more I wanted to know. I can’t DM yet so I’m hoping jdreesen at least might see this.

The pics are what we have. It is possible there might be documentation and other cables, and I’m hoping there is a mouse somewhere but have not found it yet. The keyboard was with the unit but from pictures online I'm assuming it was a later addition or replacement.

My questions to those more knowledgeable (and thank you in advance for any help/advice):

1. Case History: Does the wooden case, drive, PSU, and card cage configuration indicate a very early production run? I saw it came from Provo, Utah, and wondered if there was a "cabinet shop next door" arrangement or if the owner knew a builder. It seems odd given most computers (including the Diser Liliths) were metal.
2. CHM Comparison: Looking at the Computer History Museum's very similar looking machine, we seem to be in a similar place in history. Can I comfortably say this is from the same place/production run?
3. Monitor Orientation: The monitor is not vertical (portrait) as I've seen in earlier and later images. Does this imply it was used for a different purpose than running the standard GUI?
4. Drives: The presence of the Honeywell Bull drive sounds like an earlier machine, whereas images of the "smaller wood case" variants seem to use an alternate drive (e.g., this pic from Byte). Does this date the machine?
5. Expansion Cards:

• Completeness: From the cards installed, does this look like a complete setup that could theoretically run?
• HP Connector: The card with an HP serial connector. Would this be for controlling HP instruments, or perhaps peripherals like a plotter?
• Custom Wire Wrap card: It has 4 IDC headers. Could this be a custom controller for industrial equipment or perhaps data acquisition?

6. Provenance: Does the label on the back (IMG_2417.jpeg) signify where it may have been used? The label mentions "Computer System Architects," which came back to the same address in Provo as the Modula Research Institute. I wondered if the "EIN" on the label was a part number or serial?

I hope there may be an option to restore this and try to reclaim any data that might be on the disk (I am aware of the Honeywell Bull drive warnings about not powering up before repair work). That is likely a future project, but for now, I want to write up accurate display information for the museum.

Apologies for the picture quality; the lighting in the room was difficult!

 

[MrImprovement]

That is an amazing find! Hope it can be brought back to life...

See this thread, possibly the person who started that thread can help you further? https://forum.vcfed.org/index.php?threads/ide-interface-for-the-eth-lilith.1255779/

 

[cfbsoftware]

FYI the first ten Liliths were produced at ETH in 1980. Diser ("Data Image Sound Emitter Receiver") AG was established in Switzerland in spring 1984 by Heinz Waldburger and IT manager at Nestle SA. Richard Ohran was one of Niklaus Wirth's coworkers during the design and implementation of the Lilith. He was one of the first employees at Diser but left to found the Modula Research Institute in his hometown, Provo Utah, with his brother in 1984.

This information is from the book "The School of Niklaus Wirth: The Art of Simplicity". which includes an interesting chapter about the Lilith history: "Lilith Meets the World of Business" by Bernhard Wagner.

There is also a wealth of detailed Lilith hardware and software information to be found on Jos Dreesens's Emulith ftp site.

 

[bear]

Jos will certainly weigh in with more detail, but in the meanwhile:

The video signal timing is controlled by a microprogram stored in an EPROM on the display board. There was an EPROM for a landscape (non-portrait) display.

I have a somewhat later model, I believe also made by MRC, which uses a standard ST-419 drive and was apparently in use at TRW. I did not receive a keyboard or monitor with it, and the EPROM on my display board is set up for the portrait display. I am still searching for a suitable monitor after >10 years. So in that sense, you're lucky.

...I'm not sure why the forum thinks that is the correct orientation of my photo.

 

[daver2]

A very nice find!

Forum photograph orientation (and sequence) is a little "hit and miss" shall we say...

Dave

 

[Ruud]

I can’t DM yet so I’m hoping jdreesen at least might see this.

I sent him a mail, I know Jos personally.

 

[jdreesen]

This is indeed an early Lilith, and yes it is (more than) complete. You have everything you need to get it running again.
I don't really know much about the timeline or provenance : after the initial run of 10 units, production was shifted to Utah/USA. Most of the early ones seem to have this wooden case.

Richard Ohran, the true designer of the Lilith, is still around and lives in the Provo region. Maybe a candidate for a CHM oral history session ?

w.r.t. to the machine : I'd be interested in pictures of the "MON" and "DISP" boards.
The extra boards in the I/O slots are custom jobbies of which I know nothing. Interfacing a Lilith to a custom IO board is very easy and can, even must, be done from the Modula-2 high level language.
I noted that one of the boards is sporting a HP 48 pin device, almost certainly a prototype. I would just remove these 2 boards.

W.r.t. to the D120 disk : it uses embedded servo information. The Lilith writes to the disk as part of the booting process : if this goes wrong the servo information is gone and the cartridge is toast.
Therefore make sure you write protect the cartridges. Also remove the cartridge from the drive : the door interlock on the left hand side is easily defeated by hand, enabling you to open the door and remove the cartridge.

Later units use a WD1001/IMI5018 MFM disk and are much more robust. They also sport more memory ( up to 1M 16b words) and a more complicated booting process....

The first units had a PAL compatible 4:3 display, later Liliths all sport the portrait display.

The keyboard is a simple ASCII output unit, each Lilith I saw seems to have a different keyboard.

My FTP server is currently out of action, but most relevant data is also present on Bitsavers.

 

[Craigmg]

Thanks so much to everyone for the warm welcome and the incredible information!

@cfbsoftware and @bear - Thank you for the history on Diser vs. ETH and the clarification on the monitor/video signal. It is great to know there were EPROMs for different orientations; that explains the landscape setup here.

@jdreesen - Thank you for confirming this is an early unit. I will definitely take your advice on the D120 disk protection and removing the prototype boards before any power-up attempts.

You mentioned:

w.r.t. to the machine : I'd be interested in pictures of the "MON" and "DISP" boards.

I have attached the images of the display board below. However, regarding the MON board: The slot is present and labeled "MON," but it was actually empty when I opened the cage.

Is that board an optional extra, or is it possible one of the other installed cards (like the wire-wrap one) is handling that function?

Thanks again!

 

[jdreesen]

I did indeed misread the cardcage and now see that the MON slot is empty. No problem, it was intended to receive the MC6800 based auxilliary debugging unit.
The Lilith will run without it, but it sure helps if you are debugging a malfunctioning unit. It allows you to control the Liliths microcode and microaddress via a serial link to another PC.
I remade this board, see https://forum.vcfed.org/index.php?threads/eth-lilith-dpu-board-remake.1237066/
The userinterface is underwhelming...

The DISP board is interesting in that it does not have the timing eproms : this confirms that this is a very early unit. It will cannot drive the portrait monitor.

 

[Craigmg]

So sorry for my tardiness in replying, life seems to move so fast lately! I'll definitely take a look at the dpu reconstruction if we can get to the point of restoring this one, superb work on creating that and making the schematic available.
The few pictures I found online of the DISP boards always showed those sockets populated and I wondered why this one was not. Thank you for clearing that up.
I wonder if in the product hierarchy, ours was a lower spec unit with no portrait monitor. Maybe it was sold as more of an instrumentation control/data gathering unit rather than a personal workstation to sit at. That said I'm sure the standard monitor was fine to use also, it's all I've ever known!