What is this? Post Photos of Mystery Items Here (vintage computers only)

[VERAULT]

In the book they had a Cray X-MP

In the book they mention buying Two Crays.... And then made the point "Who the hell buys TWO Crays?! What are they doing on that Island?"

Yeah I love the movie,, but the Book was so much better. Big Chrichton fan. Shame what they did to the movie Sphere. That was my favorite Crichton Novel. Maybe there is hope for a Micro movie.... but probably not in todays hollyweird.

 

[NeXT]

The biggest problem with most dongles is the lack of markings. You can't query them in software and the markings typically printed on the dongle typically don't help much either outside of Rainbow/GlobeTrotters manufacturing process.

It gets even more magical when you have applications that check for a dongle AND compare against its serial number, so if you have the software and you lose the dongle you are double-boned because any other dongle will not work.

 

[ronaldvd]

Its obviously a parallel port hardware key for an old Alias software package, but I'm not sure its Maya. Whatever its for I'd love to know the specific version.

This is a key for the FLEXlm system. To use it, you would need to have a license file which was generated by the software vendor matching the FLEXID printed on the key.

 

[hunterjwizzard]

In the book they mention buying Two Crays.... And then made the point "Who the hell buys TWO Crays?! What are they doing on that Island?"

Yeah I love the movie,, but the Book was so much better. Big Chrichton fan. Shame what they did to the movie Sphere. That was my favorite Crichton Novel. Maybe there is hope for a Micro movie.... but probably not in todays hollyweird.

I thought it was 3 in the book?

I had the tie-in video game "Trespasser" and played it incessantly. The game's narration was(I thought) excerpts from the book read by the guy who played Hammond in the film. I recall very vividly the line "Three Cray XM-Ps could move more data faster than any computer system in the Americas".

But that could have been an invention of the game. The in one level you in fact find a room with 3 Cray XM-Ps. Those things were easy to model.

 

[jafir]

"Three Cray XM-Ps could move more data faster than any computer system in the Americas".

Might not be too far off, back then. I had a coworker in the 90s that worked for Phillips petroleum previously and they had a Cray (ymp I think) in the early 90s that was used for geological science stuff of some sort, finding oil. To keep the thing busy they used an IBM mainframe that was basically just used as I/O to feed it data to crunch. Or at least that’s the way he described it to me.

 

[hunterjwizzard]

Might not be too far off, back then. I had a coworker in the 90s that worked for Phillips petroleum previously and they had a Cray (ymp I think) in the early 90s that was used for geological science stuff of some sort, finding oil. To keep the thing busy they used an IBM mainframe that was basically just used as I/O to feed it data to crunch. Or at least that’s the way he described it to me.

That's got to be a pretty interesting setup. Super computers were so elegant back then.

 

[Maikudou]

Given that Maya 1 was released in 1998 and 2.5 in 2000, chances are its for Maya 1 or 2. Or might as well be for any other Alias|Wavefront software.

 

[VERAULT]

I thought it was 3 in the book?

I had the tie-in video game "Trespasser" and played it incessantly. The game's narration was(I thought) excerpts from the book read by the guy who played Hammond in the film. I recall very vividly the line "Three Cray XM-Ps could move more data faster than any computer system in the Americas".

But that could have been an invention of the game. The in one level you in fact find a room with 3 Cray XM-Ps. Those things were easy to model.

Havent read it in years... Could be three.

Hammond? You mean Richard Attenborough? Cummon, an actor of his fame deserves a bit more than "the guy".

Wasnt trespasser panned by critics? Or am I thinking something else.

I liked the genesis port and the sega CD one was ok too.

 

[hunterjwizzard]

Wasnt trespasser panned by critics? Or am I thinking something else.

No you're thinking of Trespasser. "Panned" is being generous. It was eviscerated. Even today the game as released is barely playable on what would have been a high-end system of the time.

But... even in software-render mode on my 433mhz celeron, using a cheat code to transform it from a shooter into an exploration game, it was still amazing. I've not played many games since that so thoroughly made me feel like I was playing in a large world despite the very limited levels.

 

[Chuck(G)]

Well, the X- and Y-MP weren't Seymour's designs in any case, unlike the Cray 1, 2 (or never delivered 3--loaned out yes).
So not that much cachet. The Cray-2 used Fluorinert as coolant, unlike the ETA-10, which used liquid nitrogen--both of those had cachet.

 

[Eudimorphodon]

Well, the X- and Y-MP weren't Seymour's designs in any case, unlike the Cray 1, 2 (or never delivered 3--loaned out yes).
So not that much cachet. The Cray-2 used Fluorinert as coolant, unlike the ETA-10, which used liquid nitrogen--both of those had cachet.

You knew it was really truly over when they stopped building sofas into them.

 

[hunterjwizzard]

You knew it was really truly over when they stopped building sofas into them.

A truly under-appreciated feature of super-computing.

 

[bburley]

The Dongle itself appears to be universal and can be used with any software. - It appears that the letters used stand for "Sentinel Pro".

https://fccid.io/IVZSPRO1188

So the only identifying feature is the white label. Given the timeline here, the probability of it being Maya is extremely high.

Alias Systems Corporation - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

I also found the following two pages interesting.

Interfacing to parallel port dongle via USB adapter

I have software (PADS Layout) that requires a parallel port dongle, and it works fine on my present (fairly old) computer, which has a native parallel port. But newer computers, particularly laptops, do not have these legacy ports and instead use USB to Parallel (or USB to Serial) converters...

maker.pro

Cosmic Software - - FLEXid license Management

Edit: I didn't see the next page of replies until after I posted this.

 

[hunterjwizzard]

Probably Maya 2.2 in that case, based on the "Rev 2.2 June/99", and the previously covered timeframe of Maya relases.

Well it seems doubtful I could successfully make a 25 year old copy of Maya work with this thing, but as an avid 3D artist its a neat tchotchke to have in my collection.

 

[bburley]

Reminded me that I had a stray dongle stashed for a long time. Now that I have dug it out, I don't see any reason to keep it.
If anyone wants it for the cost of postage, let me know before I toss it.

 

[bburley]

After I thought of tossing it, I at least should look inside.
I guess that blob (of epoxy?) is saying "so you want to reverse engineer it, do you?"

 

[Maikudou]

Probably epoxied it before X-rays were invented, circa 1882

 

[NeXT]

You can also see the top of the chip has been sanded off.

 

[hunterjwizzard]

Probably epoxied it before X-rays were invented, circa 1882

Xray wouldn't help you remove the chip and tinker with it.

 

[wrm]

Strictly speaking, I know what these are. I have serials 001 and 002 (of maybe a total of 4) MIL-STD-1553 data bus boxes developed by UEC in the eighties. However, I don't know whether these boards were developed specifically for this application (I doubt it) or whether they were developed for local use (because of sanctions) or whether they were COTS type stuff.

As far as I know this is Multibus (one) over DIN41612. As you can see, the boards were not developed by the same team, three different styles, three different CAD systems, etc.

Also part of this is a wire-wrapped PCB with an 82C54 and not much else. And a P.E.P. "Interactive Touch Entry Display" 04282.