Just as the vast majority of political discussions on the internet end with one person invoking the name of Hitler, when people talk computers on the internet there’s a good chance the discussion will turn into a contest to see who has been messing with computers longer.
Most people think if they went into a Radio Shack in the 1980’s and saw a computer for sale they were some sort of alpha geek. If you’ve seen these debates -or if you’ve been in one of these debates- you might like this week’s Tech Tuesday.
Today we get to separate the graybeards from the wannabes. And put 50 bucks in the graybeard’s pocket.
As I’ve gone thru my career I’ve saved a piece of technology every 4 or 5 years as sort of a milepost in our technological advancement. One day I’ll frame them or donate them to a museum or something. For example I have a 5 1/2″ 10MB hard drive that, at the time, was amazing.
This piece is a little older than that.
(Click for a closer look)
Do you know what this is? It might be worth 50 bucks to you.
I put both a tape measure and a dollar bill on it to illustrate the scale.
It’s 16″ wide and a foot deep!
More Below
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(Click for a closer look)
So here’s the deal. I spoke to Kevin and he said he’d give the first person to properly ID this hunk of computing history 50 bucks. And considering the age of this thing, if you remember it, I’ll throw in a box of dried prunes and an extra large box of Depends.
Take your best guess below. (Note: If this is drop dead simple and you know it before anyone else has even guessed, email me rather than drop it in comments. (paul at wizbangblog.com) I want it to last more than 20 minutes.)
And I’ll be pretty generous about awarding the prize.. (Hey, it’s Kevin’s money 😉 If nobody gets it exactly right but someone gets very close, I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt.
Update: We really have a winner. The comments are still open but unless you knock my socks off with knowledge, I’m pretty much done. See my comment about 9:30ish.
Memory. Do I have to count the chips to provide a total?
Wouldn’t happen to be a memory card from a VAX or PDP-11 would it?
Looks like a memory card from an EMC SAN
Big deal. Wanna see my mainframe memory card from 1978? A whopping 4K of RAM, baby….
Definitely memory, but the shocker is how much…or how little. I’ll go with a whopping one megabyte.
And I’ll add in the comments…. If some people are close but one person nails it later in life, I’ll probably go with the guy who nailed it.
Judging will be a fair and I can make it.
256 K of Memory.
Memory from an early EMC Symmetrix Storage Array. I’m guessing, circa 1991?
Hmm…can I have a second bite at the apple?
It’s and EMC 1 megabit chip memory board developed for Prime computers, circa 1985-86
You disappoint me. You are all way off base. It’s one of 3 main boards to Sen. Robert Byrd’s first pacemaker.
My guess is that it is a TWENTY dollar bill in the first picture, and the remainder is historical junk that has (fortunately) been outdated.
Seriously, I have no clue. I was lucky to identify the TWENTY dollar bill, given my eyesight.
Could it be an ALU? I guessed in email to Paul that it was memory, but something in the circuit tells me otherwise.
I believe it is an ALU (Arithmetic Logic Unit) from some type of computer. I see some chips labeled as A18, A19… A24, which leads me to belive that they are accumulators. So perhaps this is the CPU of some computer system.
It’s part of a computer. (This makes me the default winner if everyone else is wrong.)
I’m sticking with the memory module ID. I would have guessed it was for a Prime system, but somebody beat me to that. So I’ll go with an HP.
Well, I’m going to against the flow and say parity-protected memory for an 18-bit DEC machine such as the PDP-7, -9, or -15.
I still have an AT knockoff in the basement, and I’ll go along with the memory board theme. For specifics, I’d guess the original board from the IBM XT, with the UNBELIEVABLE amount of 640K RAM.
Hal? Is that you?
It’s for an IBM mainframe 9121.
It looks like it could be a 16k memory board for a late 80’s early 80 minicomputer
Hmm, I had some 24 bit video memory cards on
an ancient SGI workstation that looked sorta
like that.
1MB EMC memory board from 1985. Was definitely between 1983 and 1987 since that was when they were in Natick.
Circuit board for processing ’80s Census data.
Wild guess, but for some reason this board makes me think big bureaucratic government.
…I’m guessing a 1 meg memory board out of a DEC VAX minicomputer.
As I recall they could hold up to eight. 😉
I believe we ran with four meg, running 12 CAD terminals off one VAX. It could get *real* slow real fast….
This is emc’s memory upgrade (circa 1983?) of 1 megabit RAM, or maybe it’s the 64-kb memory board?
do you know matt? he had one of those at my parents house a few months ago (maybe in october?)
Anyway – I cant remember if his was a 1 mb ,512 k, or 256 k… i just remember it being really small and we tossed it aroudn for the dogs.
yes, again…how about 640K of memory? (The most memory that bill gates once said we would ever need….)
Sixteen bit wide error correcting memory, not s-100 or xt or pc or mac or VME from the form factor. One of the PDPs?
It looks like a line card from an EMC2 PBX system. I can’t quite place it … but definitely from a PBX.
Memory module for a Sperry/Univac UYK-7 or UYK-20
Gawd! We’re surrounded by a bunch of geeks.
(Uh, Dude, how long have you been reading blogs? – Ed.)
Is it the circuitry inside the joystick of an Atari 2600? 😉
DEC has already been mentioned, so I’m going to say a memory board for a Data General Eclipse.
Is it an old cell phone?
HA! I like that one!
ok, it’s me again…it’s a high heat dissipation mounting for solid state devices and circuits, circa 1975-1980.
I believe that it’s a piece of the original Cross.
If you look closely, you’ll see the bloodstains of Jesus.
It’s the memory card from the Heath kit that Al Gore created the Internet on while doing secret research for DARPA long before he was elected to office WHILE he was in Cambodia.
Is it a drive controller?
An I/O board for a Prime system.
>It’s the memory card from the Heath kit that Al Gore created the Internet on while doing secret research for DARPA long before he was elected to office WHILE he was in Cambodia.
We have a winner!
Processor board for the digital display on my mother-in-law’s bathroom scale.
I’m going to guess that it is a 640kb-1MB of memory board for either a minicomputer or a mainframe circa… 1979-1983. What can I say, the first computer I ever owned was a 386 w/ 2mb of ram and a 100MB hdd.
Update: Someone emailed me in Russian and I thought we had a winner…
Excepted I pasted some of the message into google translator and it said something about the fact I could “guzzel like a fountian” so maybe not….
Also, for all who mailed… No, it is not a processor from a “Cialas” brand computer whatever those are.
oh jack that was low – funny but low
The motherboard for what became the very first SUN workstation?
Last try…memory from an HP 3000.
Main processing board for a video game console?
I’ll guess PacMan, but will expect to be announced the winner if it’s anything close…
It’s obviously a memory card of some sort. The main section of chips is in a perfect grid layout, and most board designers don’t put anything in rows and columns unless it’s RAM.
I’m guessing it’s from an old VAX, 11/xxx series of some sort. Looking at the later VAXen, they had 2- and 4-slot boards, but no 6-slot boards like this one is. I’m 99.9% sure it’s memory, though.
Or a memory board for a Prime computer circa 1980’s
Ok, can’t. stop. submitting.
Memory board for Pong?
Look at Yahoo with a search argument of emc history
for your answer. It is the first hit.