Restoring IBM (was: Age)

[Henk Stegeman]

Hi Eric,

I have the advantage of having the SLT module documentation
of IBM. The level of integration is quit low, so replacing a transistor
or diode is quite do-able. The SLT is btw very reliable, MTBF of 50 year.
I am afraid that the CCROS in the /30 is a bigger problem then failing SLT.

I visited the Computer History Museum a few years ago and suggested
a restoration project like the IBM 1620.
The reply was that the previous owner has cut some wiring to be certain that
it would never run again (to prevent reading their coorperate data on the
disks)

Henk

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Eric Smith" <eric at brouhaha.com>
To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts"
<cctalk at classiccmp.org>
Sent: Tuesday, March 01, 2005 7:32 PM
Subject: Re: Restoring IBM (was: Age)


> I wrote:
> > The Computer History Museum in Mountain View CA USA has a 360/30.  I
hope
> > we can restore it someday.
>
> William wrote:
> > IBM. Tough stuff.
>
> Henk wrote:
> > Why is restoring IBM stuff so tough ?
>
> Suppose we try to restore the 360/30, and one of the hybrid SLT
> modules is bad.  Where do you suppose we'll find a replacement?  Most
> likely we would have to try to fabricate one, assuming that we could
> find or reverse-engineer a schematic for the particular module.
>
> By comparison, restoring a machine like a PDP-1 is a piece of cake,
> because all of the components are readily visible.
>
> Eric
>
>