Restoring a $25,000 Convergent Technologies Miniframe CTIX Unix Computer, Vintage from 1985
Вставка
- Опубліковано 8 тра 2022
- I'm an avid collector of Convergent Technologies computers, perhaps you've seen my previous videos on the Convergent NGEN. In this video I start the restoration process on a Convergent Miniframe computer that I obtained from eBay. This computer uses a 68010 CPU and runs an operating system called CTIX. In this video, I spend most of the time checking out the power supply. I remove the hard drive and image it using an MFM emulator. I boot it up and look at the diagnostic LEDs. Unfortunately, I could not get the computer to boot, that will have to be finished in the next part in this series. For more vintage computer material, see www.smbaker.com/
Resources:
* Forgotten Machines blog over at mightyframe.blogspot.com
* AJ's video booting the image on his miniframe-on-a-board: • Convergent Technologie... - Наука та технологія
I was a Min and Megaframe service engineer back in the early 80's - did my training at Amersham in the UK. I loved those machines.
My company was a distributor for Convergent Technologies Mins and Mightyframes (VME based) back in the 1990s. We used these as servers with Locus PCI TCPIP software to provide TCP networking on DOS based PCs running AutoCAD, since AutoCAD would not run with Netware. Later we moved to Motorola Computer Group 68030 based VME Unix System V systems. Motorola (aka Four Phase Systems) also rebranded the Min for several years.
Yes, I am SO happy and proud to see this!!! VERY nicely done! I've just shared this on the Convergent Technologies Alumni Facebook group, so hopefully we'll get some great feedback from those who designed and built these machines back in the day, as well as remember using them.
I had a mini-20 - the same case but with a tape drive where that floppy is. Bought it when obsoleted by a workplace. I eventually gave it to some guys at a cambridge college. I also had some of their neat little terminals.
The best corn on the internet! Thanks for sharing!
LOL At this point of my career I was the VP of Marketing of Convergent's Unix division which included the Min. Our ad for the product - which I think I still have - said, "It's not how big it is, it's how well it performs."
Holy glue logic, Batman! I thought PAL's were supposed to reduce chip counts (vs 74-series logic) .
That thing is really cool, man.
Super cool. 👍
I worked for Burroughs before they bought Convergent. We had a Mightyframe? in the office, which was a 3 bay system. We got a copy of Unix with it, and I loaded it. The first Unix I ever saw. They the salesman would load ctos on it, and when I wanted to use it I would load Unix on it again. The good old days.
Cool 😎
20:44 Very interesting. In my tests on my video (refenced in your video description here) I do not connect any floppy , and yet, it is able to move beyond this status. I should do a comparison test with no hard drive connected either, and see if I can reproduce this status indication. And....just tested it just now, and indeed, I can reproduce this exact status with the MFM hard drive disconnected or "emulator not started". So far, so good!
4:40 points out the serial ports. It is interesting how serial is still a valid mode of communication nowadays...(like every microcontroller and almost every desktop motherboard still has some serial port), so could still talk directly to this.
Will you ever do a video on your BBS game Land of Devastation? I'd LOVE to hear some stories about that game - it was one of my favorites as a kid.
This is awesome. never knew about mini frames. Is it possible to connect serial terminal to serial port and get some tty display even without disk? sort of firmware kind of thing in newer Unix machines like ILOM.
22:00 It's true, unfortunately. I've been watching for MightyFrame and MiniFrame media since 2013, and I have never yet seen any floppy disks for the MiniFrame. Only install tapes, but that will probably be the topic for a future video...from one of us at least...I hope...
nice.. i know it's a silly question... have you tried sticking a terminal on the serial ports to see if there's a console >??
Yeah, there's nothing on the serial ports.
I suggest obs for screen recording.
What was the shipping cost?
21:16 I just recorded a video potentially diagnosing what might be the problem here. Please check it out. (I'll reply to this comment with the video URL, but if you don't see it, that means UA-cam blocked it because it doesn't like me putting URLs in the comments )... Yep, UA-cam blocked my URL, so maybe Scott you could include that video as an info card around 21:16 in your video? That would be cool! Especially if it WORKS for you!!!
OK, here's my diagnostic attempt video for this ua-cam.com/video/HcZOSpsNhL0/v-deo.html
Nice clickbait. It's not a $25,000 computer. I can list my Hyundai for sale for $300,000. That doesn't mean it's a $300,000 Hyundai. Reported misleading description.
You didn’t actually watch the video, did you?
I'm referring to the title, not what he said in the video.@@lawrencedoliveiro9104