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I now own a PDP 8/I, DF32, and more!

K

Kevin Williams

Experienced Member
Joined
Jan 12, 2012
Messages
73
Location
Fort Worth, TX
Hi Everyone!

A lifelong dream has been fulfilled! I now own a 1968-era PDP-8/I! Sadly, I will likely be selling it, not restoring it as David Gesswein suggested that someone else would probably like to restore it, and I probably don't have the time now anyway. I bought it from an auction just last week, and it's even cooler than I thought it would be. It is not perfect, and probably won't power on in its current state for a number of reasons. One of which, is that I think it's wired for 208v, or three phase due to the amount of power supplies, and secondly, it did seem to have a rat living in it at one point. :-( However, it seems that most of the damage was limited due to the orientation of the backplane of the PDP-8/I board.
This machine is huge, and contains a TON of flip-chip modules in a second cabinet. There are also a ton of large connectors in the bottom of the chassis, which I'm guessing controlled an assembly line, due to some of the other items present at the auction. Also, I found a document stuffed in the ASR-33 I bought, which states the Lily Ice Cream Company, Houston, TX and a few dates of 1970 stamped on it. Certainly seems to fit the time frame, and I'm guessing all of the modules were used for A/D for sensors, etc. I'm also guessing the DF-32 holds (or held) the code to run this beast! I wanted to get a few comments on this machine as I know the PDP 8/I and the DF-32 would be of interest to someone, but would it be better to leave this machine in-tact? I realize its unlikely to be making ice cream again, but I also thought it is very rare for a system like this to make it all of these years without having one part pulled from it. It seems they disconnected all of the cables, stuffed them in the cabinet and stuck it in the corner for 20+ years!

Below are some photos, sorry they are bad. The cabinet is double-wide, and sitting on its side in my garage. We had to put it in the trailer on its side, but we can't get it up-right with two people, so I am either going to have to take stuff out of it to right the cabinet, or get a few folks over. :)

One odd thing I think is happening, but I can't tell for sure is that the DF-32 seems to be "driving" all of the modules on the left-hand side of the cabinet. The interface cables from PDP 8/I run to it, like I've seen pics of. The cables then leave the drive, and go to the other cards. Are they being treated as drive 1,2,3? Or are they just extending the bus off of the drive, since it was closer. I know it's hard to say, but I can't get deep enough into the cab yet to tell.

Either way, It's a beautiful mess of 1960's tech!

Take care,
-Kevin
 

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Hi All;

Congratulations !!

I wish I had the means to afford to buy it from You, But that is not to be..

I hope that SomeOne here in the Group will be the final Owner of it and can Restore it to a working machine..

Thank You for the Pictures..

THANK YOU Marty
 
The large chassis that is not part of the processor may have a metal label on the side. The label would include the model number and serial number of the chassis. If you know what the chassis is it might increase the value of the system.
 
Kevin,

Well done on your 'find'.

I am surprised it didn't end up going to the recyclers long ago to be honest...

Please make sure it goes to a 'responsible' person who is going to restore it. The history about making ice cream etc. is highly interesting - you should do a bit of research into the company before selling it on. You may still be able to find some 'old timers' who worked at the factory and remember it.

You should avoid it going to somewhere where they are just going to part it out and sell it on a well-known auction site for lots of $$$ or to a 'collector' who is going to put it in a corner of the room and not do anything with it.

Pity the transportation costs to the UK will be horrendous - but I have enough projects to keep me busy for a while...

Dave
 
M-26 is the serial number tag from the processor chassis.

Maybe you could use a mirror to see if there tags on the sides of the other chassis.
 
Not sure what those other flip chips are for. Probably the interface to something. The DF32s are hard to work with as the heads actually sit on the
disk when they are powered off. I had some in mine but never powered them. Good luck with it, but keep it all together as it's worth more.
 
Kevin Williams said:
One odd thing I think is happening, but I can't tell for sure is that the DF-32 seems to be "driving" all of the modules on the left-hand side of the cabinet. The interface cables from PDP 8/I run to it, like I've seen pics of. The cables then leave the drive, and go to the other cards. Are they being treated as drive 1,2,3? Or are they just extending the bus off of the drive, since it was closer. I know it's hard to say, but I can't get deep enough into the cab yet to tell.
Click to expand...

That sounds like normal bus cabling. The cables *are* the bus, so they go from one device to the next. Usually the fastest would go first, probably for signal integrity reasons. Also, the DF32 is a DMA (Data Break) device, and quite likely the DMA cabling ends there and does not continue to the other devices.

Vince
 
Hey everyone,

Thanks so much for the input. I did do a little research on the company, but I suspect it may be too late to find anyone, or at least very difficult. I found that the Lily Ice Cream Company was purchased by Sealtest long before the 70's, which is now known as Kraft. As such, I'm guessing there may be a heck of a time finding anyone. Also, I believe I found the obituary for the founders Grand-Daughter in 2015. She was 98 at the time! This company was around for a long time, but the name seems to have faded in the 80's and I suspect the principle folks are no longer with us. I'll see what else I can find, it was my first area to research, but seems like it may be tough to find anything. Also, Lily was based in Tennessee, and this was from a site in Houston it seems, even tougher to find someone I suspect.

BTW, is 231 a low serial number for my chassis? Most of the ICs I've looked at have a '68 date code so it seems to be an earlier one. Does anyone know how many PDP/8-I's were made? I saw somewhere there were approx. 50k PDP8's made, but I'm assuming that was all models. Just wondering if this is one of the earlier models.

Thanks!
-Kevin
 
Hello,

My wife and I, and our little Kubota tractor, some duct tape, a 2x4, and a little praying, and BAM, we were able to right the cabinet this morning! I took some more photos and a video. (Here is the link, it's uploading as I type: https://youtu.be/XsHxGpq68YM)

There are 11 Dec Mounting Panel #1943's that make up the backplane. There are 8 or 9 transformers, and a ton of regulators, and capacitors, etc. I couldn't find a brand name on the Chassis itself, so I took some more pics hoping someone could help with that. Thanks again!

IMG_9305.jpgIMG_9306.jpgIMG_9310.jpgIMG_9311.jpgIMG_9314.jpgIMG_9315.jpgIMG_9318.jpgIMG_9320.jpgIMG_9322.jpgIMG_9323.jpgIMG_9324.jpgIMG_9325.jpgIMG_9328.jpgIMG_9329.jpg
 
Just so everyone is on the same page, this is what it means when a Texan says "our little Kubota":

67ee508b6ad34ae2a1fe660c3e341787_MikeMug_New-640x428.jpg
 
The two power supplies at the top of the back door are common in most DEC equipment.
The power controller under the Plexiglas cover translates the little signal from the key and turns on all of the AC power.
The blue flexprint cables, and the round COAX cables are the Negibus that connects the processor to the peripherals.
The Dymo labels in the last picture are probably the IOT address of the peripheral.
The big chassis at the top of the I/O cabinet looks factory DEC manufactured. There might be a model/serial label on the side of it.
The 7 chassis at the bottom of the I/O cabinet don't look like they were wired by DEC.
 
Very cool! Thanks so much. I took a really good look around, and I can't find a label anywhere on the top unit. However, now that I'm looking at it, I believe you're correct and the chassis on the top and bottom are separate. Ok. I'm going to list it now, I hope no one is mad if I wind up parting it later. Without working on it myself, I don't really know how much more I can learn about it. I have to make money on this, or I have to get a real IT job again. :)
 
m_thompson said:
Just to tie Kubota to computers...
Stellar and Ardent (there is one at the RICM) merged to form Stardent which became Kubota Pacific Computers.
Click to expand...

And Jack Burness of PDP-11 lunder lander fame (https://github.com/simh/simh/blob/master/PDP11/lunar11/gtlem.mac) was one of the early graphics programmers at Kubota Pacific Computers.

Ref: http://decconnection.org/obits/Email Memorial Testimonials for Steve Teicher.pdf

When I was in Apple R&D in the early 90s we went over to visit them to see if they had any technology that made sense for Apple to invest in.
 
Hey Everyone,

I wanted to post a few pics of the documents I found along with this machine. Sadly, they are not for the PDP-8, but rather it looks like they go to the Burroughs Sensimatic Series 200 which I also received in this lot. The teletype came on a palette with a REALLY old Pitney Bowes postage printer. (It looks to have a 1/2 horse or so motor, and tube-based motor controller in an ancient 4U box.) Along with that machine is a large cabinet with what appears to be pre-printed silkscreen templates for accounts payable, and maybe receivable too. The paperwork I have is actually from Burroughs, and they even misspelled their client's name repeatedly. It's the Lily Ice Cream Company, and they put Lilly. My daughter is named Lily, and it drives her crazy when people misspell it. However, I think this is pretty good evidence that the PDP 8 came from this company, and there is some test printing with a 1973 date on it. I know it's probably out of scope for this forum, but does anyone know about these Burroughs machines? Other than they are hernia-inducing? :)

IMG_9334.jpgIMG_9335.jpgIMG_9337.jpgIMG_9338.jpgIMG_9339.jpg

Either way, this huge layout sheet is really neat, and will be a nice addition to the Burroughs machine if anyone is interested in it. It's way down on my list of priorities right now.

Thanks!
-Kevin
 
Kevin Williams said:
Very cool! Thanks so much. I took a really good look around, and I can't find a label anywhere on the top unit. However, now that I'm looking at it, I believe you're correct and the chassis on the top and bottom are separate. Ok. I'm going to list it now, I hope no one is mad if I wind up parting it later. Without working on it myself, I don't really know how much more I can learn about it. I have to make money on this, or I have to get a real IT job again. :)
Click to expand...

After having no power for over 4 days due to a storm, I awoke 15 mins ago and while having my first cup of tea started to read this post of your 8i find.

Being the owner of an 8i here in Australia, and after a house move, under very pressured circumstances due to elderly parents death's, finding part of my 8i had got lost in the move; I am really NOT mad BUT VERY SAD you are going to PART this machine. !!!

It survived as a complete machine all these years, most likely almost exactly as it left the factory. There are NOT many left in their original sold configuration.

OK thinking more about this comment you make about "parting it" is starting to get me mad. At 65 yo, I feel your are being wrong to separate the machine, but why you wish to as quickly after posting on here and having fokes suggest its a great intact find, I cannot fathom ?.

I will say it is good you bought it, at least to save it from the scrappers.


These early machines quite often had DEC or other OEM specific flip cards, that connected to external peripheral units actually plugged into the main 8i back plane.

In my 8i, it had an external NON DEC rotating drum hard drive, that was connected to cards, made by the OEM of the Drum Drive, that were plugged into my 8i backplane. Having lost the 8i backplane in the move, I now have huge issue, if I was lucky enough to get a DEC 8i populated backplane to try and recreate or get those missing cards.

So IF you part out this machine, you need to be ULTRA careful to make sure you separate items, not just BY physical blocks, BUT by OPERATIONAL Blocks.


At least wait and give a few of us on this forum, a chance to think and consider rounding up enough funds to buy it complete.

Maybe a number of the DEC enthusiasts and all others, Globably from this forum, can band to together to pool funds up to buy it complete.
 
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