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THE CORE STORE

I have for some years been building up an extensive collection of old systems, and I've started the process of documenting them here. It all started around 1990, when my girlfriend (now wife) brought a *thing* home from Cambridge University Chemistry Dept. She said 'they were going to throw this out and I thought you might be interested in it...'. Up until then I'd only ever worked with IBM PC and Mac systems, so this box came as a bit of a shock. I examined it for several minutes and concluded eventually that it was probably a computer. It was a DEC pdp-8e!

Over the next few weeks I learned a little more, got it powered up - no manuals, no terminal, just the cpu box with its front panel - and started working out what all those switches did. Then I had a break - I got in touch with a guy named Pete Waldron (aka Old Father Time) at DEC UK, in Basingstoke. He put me right, and put me in touch with a colleague who was having a clear-out... I drove to Basingstoke and came back with a car full of bits - a rack, another 8e, an 8a, RK05, paper tape reader, RX01, manuals - all good stuff.

I've never looked back, and grabbed machines from anywhere I could over the years since then. Here are some of them. Click on the links in the navigation frame above for more info on each of the main types I deal with, and details of the individual machines. Most of these systems are still in the UK... in storage since my move to the USA towards the end of '98. At least some of them will be joining me here when we get settled somplace with enough workshop space to take them! In the meantime, a select few systems have made it over, and still more have been aquired in the USA. For your entertainment, here's a panorama (click on any image to see the high-res original) of the current Corestore operations centre:


 
I've divided these pages into four subsections, corresponding to the main areas of my collection:

DEC pdp systems - pdp-8, pdp-11, pdp-10, pdp-12, pdp-15, and their associated software and peripherals
Large IBM Systems - IBM 1800, System/360, System/370, System/390, System/3x, and AS/400
Supercomputers - especially Cray, Convex, and Connection Machine systems
Various oddball workstations & Unix boxen

I'm happy to help and trade with anyone interested in this field; email me if you feel I can help you, also please check out my 'Wants List' - there are some systems I'd pay serious money for!

Old Computer Links:

 Cambridge University Computer Preservation Society
 Al's Xerox Collection
 Computer Conservation Society (UK)
Joe Smith's pdp-10 page
 Dinos Web Ring
The Retro-Computing Society of Rhode Island
 

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