rarest computers. was: RE: Xerox Alto Restoration + Emulation

[Patrick Finnegan]

<Can't find the beginning of this thread, so I'm gonna shove my response 
here.>

I've got a few "rare" machines, but they mostly seem to come out of some 
sort of "scientific instrumentation".  A vector-based computer that 
processed NMR data - an Aspect 3000, some machines made by Nicolet and 
others, etc.

Some of my favorite "rarer" machines are my General Automation SPC-16/40 
and /45 (which are neither complete nor functional right now ):  It was 
a machine targeted where the Data General Nova was targeted (a general 
purpose 16bit machine in the early 70s).

Encore Multimax - a massively SMP UNIX box with NS32332s (or 32232's?) 
that went up to 40 processors and 128MB of memory in the late 80s, and 
ran a Mach-based Unix.  I've not yet gotten that up and running, but 
I've got install tapes and documentation for it that the SPC-16s don't.

Another uncommon machine (in model, not in processor architecture) is my 
MicroVAX 3520.  I'd love to pick up more processor cards for it at some 
point and see how many I can get it to happily run with.

My favorite machines, though definitely not all that rare are my 
VAX-11/750 (first ...and only for now... UNIBUS machine) and my IBM 
S/390 Gen3 9672-RC4 (which is only 1.5 years away from being "classic" 
by the 10 year rule).  As soon as I get more unpacked into my new home, 
I'll have some time to set up my 11/750 and the Multimax to try and 
play with them.

This reminds me I need to get back to updating my website sometime.

Pat
-- 
The Computer Refuge                   --  http://computer-refuge.org
Purdue University Research Computing  --  http://www.itap.purdue.edu/rcs