[cctalk] Anyone care to guess what this is? Is it a computer even?

[Arno1983]

Hello everybody!

Jaywest wrote:
> I mentioned this on the list a long time ago - found it at a salvage
place.
> I wasn't in any rush to get pictures, but last time I was there they said
> the place was going to be declared off-limits for humans. So I got a few
> pictures of this olive drab "computer". Anyone have any clue what this
thing
> is? Just curious!? If anyone wants it I could put them in touch with the
> salvage place owner.
>
> Pictures are at www.ezwind.net/jwest/whatsit

Haven't even looked at the pictures yet (I'm doing mail offline when all I
got is a modem line), but:

*Somebody Please Save This!* (I can't, as it's across the pond and shipping
would be a killer if it can't be included into a bigger load that goes to
Europe anyway!)

Such control equipment and the like are one of the places where robotics and
the modern "embedded system" concept started off!

I own a Siemens Sinumerik unit (actually, a rebadged Fujitsu Fanuc mate TG)
from the early 1970s. It's nonfunctional now because the monitor box (which
contains the character and vector generator board for the graphics too -
abso-f***ing-lutely proprietary) is missing. I had that here once, but it
was trashed before I came to realize I wanted to save the whole thing. I
also have a lead on a Sinumerik 810 which is supposed to become available
sometime soon.

I got some demo, lessons and simulation practice on (C)NC programming two
years ago as a part of the practical introduction in industry for EE
students. Great fun to watch a huge powerful tooling machine execute
commands that one enters on a computer, serial terminal or via paper tape!

Yours sincerely,

Arno Kletzander
Stud. Hilfskraft Informatik Sammlung Erlangen --- www.iser.uni-erlangen.de