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  • Rabbit identification?

    From Mike Causer@21:1/5 to All on Wed Dec 9 19:22:02 2015
    Can anyone suggest a model number for this Rabbit? It's in the back
    rooms of a collection in the UK. There is also a P550, but it's pretty inaccessible. No problem pulling boards out until I leave on Friday afternoon, and I'll be back in the new year -- or when we lay our hands
    on a Xylogics 450 Multibus SMD controller.

    https://www.flickr.com/photos/54731504@N04/albums/72157659871842604


    Thanks,

    Mike

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  • From matt@21:1/5 to m.r.causer@goglemail.com on Wed Dec 9 17:37:32 2015
    On Wed, 9 Dec 2015 19:22:02 +0000, Mike Causer
    <m.r.causer@goglemail.com> wrote:

    Can anyone suggest a model number for this Rabbit? It's in the back
    rooms of a collection in the UK. There is also a P550, but it's pretty >inaccessible. No problem pulling boards out until I leave on Friday >afternoon, and I'll be back in the new year -- or when we lay our hands
    on a Xylogics 450 Multibus SMD controller.

    https://www.flickr.com/photos/54731504@N04/albums/72157659871842604


    Thanks,

    Mike
    The rabbit was a 2250, and the next frame over is a Century Data
    AMS315 300 mb rack mounted SMD interface.

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  • From Dennis Boone@21:1/5 to All on Wed Dec 9 17:06:59 2015
    Can anyone suggest a model number for this Rabbit? It's in the back
    rooms of a collection in the UK. There is also a P550, but it's pretty inaccessible. No problem pulling boards out until I leave on Friday afternoon, and I'll be back in the new year -- or when we lay our hands
    on a Xylogics 450 Multibus SMD controller.

    https://www.flickr.com/photos/54731504@N04/albums/72157659871842604

    A 2550 (jackrabbit?) cpu set should include these boards:

    2352 (A)
    6282 (B)

    A 2250 (rabbit) should have:

    2282 (A)
    2287 (B)

    The 2250 disk controller is likely a 2047.

    De

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  • From Mike Causer@21:1/5 to matt on Wed Dec 9 23:14:54 2015
    On Wed, 09 Dec 2015 17:37:32 -0500
    matt <mattheww50@hotmail.com> wrote:

    The rabbit was a 2250, and the next frame over is a Century Data
    AMS315 300 mb rack mounted SMD interface.

    Good info, thank you.


    Mike

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  • From Mike Causer@21:1/5 to Dennis Boone on Wed Dec 9 23:25:14 2015
    On Wed, 09 Dec 2015 17:06:59 -0600
    drb@ihatespam.msu.edu (Dennis Boone) wrote:

    A 2550 (jackrabbit?) cpu set should include these boards:

    2352 (A)
    6282 (B)

    A 2250 (rabbit) should have:

    2282 (A)
    2287 (B)

    The 2250 disk controller is likely a 2047.

    Great, I'll have those boards out in the morning.


    BTW, I had an office in the Old Brewery at the time the Rabbit came
    out, although I didn't work for Prime until 1988. I was training
    up Prime's own people on Medusa CADCAM.


    Thanks,

    Mike

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  • From Mike Causer@21:1/5 to Dennis Boone on Thu Dec 10 00:31:39 2015
    On Wed, 09 Dec 2015 17:15:48 -0600
    drb@ihatespam.msu.edu (Dennis Boone) wrote:

    On further consideration, that's not a 2250 as I understand them.
    It lacks the cart drive to the right of the control panel. That means
    it's probably a 2550.

    I'll confirm tomorrow. The lack of cart may be because of the 1/2"
    tape to the right of the disk box. I /think/ that's what it was, my concentration was on finding replacement cards for very old Suns at the
    time.


    Any chance this is the old Salford machine that traded on ebay a
    few times several years back? I always wanted to know if it contained
    the compilers they wrote.

    Nothing I know says it cannot be. We were walking past that row of racks
    this afternoon, hunting for possible donors of Multibus cards, when the
    owner says "What's that Prime?" "A Rabbit, didn't know you'd got one."
    Then get the camera for some quick pics. We are currently trying to
    fire up slightly younger stuff (by a year or so), and are stymied by
    boards & cables that have gone missing. Maybe we'll plug it in -- but
    I'll have to ask the owner first. If you feel like investing in a transatlantic ticket I'm sure he'd be very pleased to see you and let
    you play with it.


    Do you know anything about Crays? If you like 'em large there are 7
    here (that I've found so far) plus an IBM Blue Gene. Hey, even a piece
    of an EDSAC!


    Thanks Denis,

    Mike

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  • From Dennis Boone@21:1/5 to All on Wed Dec 9 23:38:44 2015
    BTW, I had an office in the Old Brewery at the time the Rabbit came
    out, although I didn't work for Prime until 1988. I was training
    up Prime's own people on Medusa CADCAM.

    Neat, I hadn't cottoned to that bit of history.

    De

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  • From Dennis Boone@21:1/5 to All on Wed Dec 9 17:15:48 2015
    Can anyone suggest a model number for this Rabbit? It's in the back
    rooms of a collection in the UK. There is also a P550, but it's pretty inaccessible. No problem pulling boards out until I leave on Friday afternoon, and I'll be back in the new year -- or when we lay our hands
    on a Xylogics 450 Multibus SMD controller.

    On further consideration, that's not a 2250 as I understand them.
    It lacks the cart drive to the right of the control panel. That means
    it's probably a 2550.

    Any chance this is the old Salford machine that traded on ebay a
    few times several years back? I always wanted to know if it contained
    the compilers they wrote.

    De

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  • From Dennis Boone@21:1/5 to All on Wed Dec 9 23:42:45 2015
    I'll confirm tomorrow. The lack of cart may be because of the 1/2"
    tape to the right of the disk box. I /think/ that's what it was, my concentration was on finding replacement cards for very old Suns at the time.

    The rabbits also had a Priam 158MB drive in the cpu cabinet. The 2550s
    did not, always using external disk.

    I'll have to ask the owner first. If you feel like investing in a transatlantic ticket I'm sure he'd be very pleased to see you and let
    you play with it.

    Would be fun. If by some chance I find myself heading over there,
    I'll have to get in touch.

    Do you know anything about Crays? If you like 'em large there are 7
    here (that I've found so far) plus an IBM Blue Gene. Hey, even a piece
    of an EDSAC!

    Sadly, no. This place sounds like quite a lot of fun, though.
    I'm guessing the owner is taking part in the reconstruction?

    De

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  • From Dave Hill@21:1/5 to Mike Causer on Thu Dec 10 07:44:56 2015
    Mike Causer <m.r.causer@goglemail.com> wrote:

    Do you know anything about Crays? If you like 'em large there are 7
    here (that I've found so far) plus an IBM Blue Gene. Hey, even a piece
    of an EDSAC!

    Do the EDSAC rebuild people know about that?

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-34996402

    Dave

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  • From Mike Causer@21:1/5 to Dave Hill on Thu Dec 10 08:49:27 2015
    On 10 Dec 2015 07:44:56 GMT
    Dave Hill <nospam@hillcroft.org.uk.invalid> wrote:

    Hey, even a
    piece of an EDSAC!

    Do the EDSAC rebuild people know about that?

    Hi Dave,

    no worries, this place is well known in UK old computer collecting
    circles. The piece of EDSAC II is about the size of an ISA board and
    came directly from Cambridge. IIRC Al Clarke is involved with the
    EDSAC reconstruction.

    I'm here to see if I can get my old CDS/3000 (Sun 2-120) running again,
    and assess another interesting piece of related kit, but the CDS has
    lost its disk controller and we haven't found a donor of another yet.

    It's a bit spooky to be walking round and say "Hey, that's my writing
    on the spines of that row of manuals!"



    Cheers,

    Mike

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  • From Mike Causer@21:1/5 to Dennis Boone on Thu Dec 10 08:56:16 2015
    On Wed, 09 Dec 2015 23:42:45 -0600
    drb@ihatespam.msu.edu (Dennis Boone) wrote:

    The rabbits also had a Priam 158MB drive in the cpu cabinet. The
    2550s did not, always using external disk.

    OK, soon as I finish breakfast I'll take a look inside.


    Would be fun. If by some chance I find myself heading over there,
    I'll have to get in touch.

    Definitely do that!


    Do you know anything about Crays? If you like 'em large there
    are 7 here (that I've found so far) plus an IBM Blue Gene. Hey,
    even a piece of an EDSAC!

    Sadly, no. This place sounds like quite a lot of fun, though.
    I'm guessing the owner is taking part in the reconstruction?

    Actively, fitted in with his day job. He's much more of a hardware man
    than me, he was building his own computers as a teen. I just built
    bicycles -- although computers were mostly room-size then.


    Mike

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  • From Mike Causer@21:1/5 to Dennis Boone on Thu Dec 10 10:28:34 2015
    On Wed, 09 Dec 2015 23:42:45 -0600
    drb@ihatespam.msu.edu (Dennis Boone) wrote:

    The rabbits also had a Priam 158MB drive in the cpu cabinet. The
    2550s did not, always using external disk.

    No room for a disk in that cabinet, so it's a 2550.

    I've added some photos to https://www.flickr.com/photos/54731504@N04/albums/72157659871842604

    Thanks for the help Dennis.


    Mike

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  • From Mike Causer@21:1/5 to Mike Causer on Thu Dec 10 10:40:09 2015
    On Thu, 10 Dec 2015 08:49:27 +0000
    Mike Causer <m.r.causer@goglemail.com> wrote:

    circles. The piece of EDSAC II is about the size of an ISA board and
    came directly from Cambridge.

    Wrong again! The ISA-size board is from an English Electric Leo, the
    EDSAC module is about 60cm long and would have 32 thermionic valves if
    they were all there.


    Mike

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  • From Morten Reistad@21:1/5 to Dennis Boone on Thu Dec 10 11:40:54 2015
    In article <vsydnbWYvItIjfTLnZ2dnUU7-audnZ2d@giganews.com>,
    Dennis Boone <drb@ihatespam.msu.edu> wrote:
    I'll confirm tomorrow. The lack of cart may be because of the 1/2"
    tape to the right of the disk box. I /think/ that's what it was, my concentration was on finding replacement cards for very old Suns at the time.

    The rabbits also had a Priam 158MB drive in the cpu cabinet. The 2550s
    did not, always using external disk.

    The 2250 has a very small cpu cage, while the 2550 have two, one 7-slot
    for the cpu boards and memory plus one larger for i/o.

    The 2250 has one small disk bay, normally with a 158mb disk and has
    a very small vcp loading from roms, while the 2550 have two full sized
    5 1/4" floppies for the vcp.

    I'll have to ask the owner first. If you feel like investing in a transatlantic ticket I'm sure he'd be very pleased to see you and let
    you play with it.

    Would be fun. If by some chance I find myself heading over there,
    I'll have to get in touch.

    Do you know anything about Crays? If you like 'em large there are 7
    here (that I've found so far) plus an IBM Blue Gene. Hey, even a piece
    of an EDSAC!

    Sadly, no. This place sounds like quite a lot of fun, though.
    I'm guessing the owner is taking part in the reconstruction?

    -- mrr

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  • From Mike Causer@21:1/5 to Morten Reistad on Thu Dec 10 11:40:51 2015
    On Thu, 10 Dec 2015 11:40:54 +0100
    Morten Reistad <first@last.name.invalid> wrote:

    The 2250 has one small disk bay, normally with a 158mb disk and has
    a very small vcp loading from roms, while the 2550 have two full sized
    5 1/4" floppies for the vcp.

    Ahh, I wondered why there was a 5 1/4" drive only accessible from the
    back.


    Mike

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  • From Dennis Boone@21:1/5 to All on Thu Dec 10 08:40:02 2015
    The 2250 has one small disk bay, normally with a 158mb disk and has
    a very small vcp loading from roms, while the 2550 have two full sized
    5 1/4" floppies for the vcp.

    Ahh, I wondered why there was a 5 1/4" drive only accessible from the
    back.

    The 2550 had microcode on one disk, and diags on the other, iirc.
    Images here if they're needed:

    http://yagi.h-net.msu.edu/prime_floppies/

    De

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  • From matt1995@21:1/5 to Boone on Thu Dec 10 19:31:27 2015
    On Wed, 09 Dec 2015 17:15:48 -0600, drb@ihatespam.msu.edu (Dennis
    Boone) wrote:

    Can anyone suggest a model number for this Rabbit? It's in the back
    rooms of a collection in the UK. There is also a P550, but it's pretty inaccessible. No problem pulling boards out until I leave on Friday afternoon, and I'll be back in the new year -- or when we lay our hands
    on a Xylogics 450 Multibus SMD controller.

    On further consideration, that's not a 2250 as I understand them.
    It lacks the cart drive to the right of the control panel. That means
    it's probably a 2550.

    Any chance this is the old Salford machine that traded on ebay a
    few times several years back? I always wanted to know if it contained
    the compilers they wrote.

    De
    Not necessarily. Later 2250's were available with a Cypher F880
    Streaming Tape Drive in place of the 15mb DEI Funnel Cartridge (which
    was an unreliable piece of junk under the best of circumstances). We
    sold a couple of 2250's with the Cypher F880 1/2 inch tape. I also
    believe later 2250's could be ordered with the AMS315 SMD drive/4005
    disk controller in place of the Priam drive.

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  • From Mike Causer@21:1/5 to Dennis Boone on Mon Dec 21 00:55:11 2015
    On Wed, 09 Dec 2015 23:38:44 -0600
    drb@ihatespam.msu.edu (Dennis Boone) wrote:

    BTW, I had an office in the Old Brewery at the time the Rabbit came
    out, although I didn't work for Prime until 1988. I was training
    up Prime's own people on Medusa CADCAM.

    Neat, I hadn't cottoned to that bit of history.

    Here's some more from those days: https://www.flickr.com/photos/54731504@N04/albums/72157647876208459

    The photos were taken in Engineering in Framingham -- there was only
    one Lexidata at that time in the whole of Prime to my knowledge. Look
    for the Easter Egg! Although I do admit to it in the captions.


    Mike

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  • From Mike Causer@21:1/5 to Mike Causer on Mon Dec 21 01:40:35 2015
    On Thu, 10 Dec 2015 08:49:27 +0000
    Mike Causer <m.r.causer@goglemail.com> wrote:

    I'm here to see if I can get my old CDS/3000 (Sun 2-120) running again,
    and assess another interesting piece of related kit, but the CDS has
    lost its disk controller and we haven't found a donor of another yet.

    We have now. So I'll be back in Jan/Feb.


    Are you in full-time remunerative employment right now? If not and you
    can get yourself to Yorkshire (for no pay, sadly) there's kit there that
    needs your knowledge. Kevan H told me that you're working at the top of
    the highest mountain in Cambridge, is that right?


    BTW, Ian B & I still meet weekly to fly our toys or have a beer if the weather's too bad. Our "toys" are getting quite expensive now.....



    Best,

    Mike

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