SGI: Discussion

Hey, I remember when they came out... screen kinda looked a bit like this, or about as readable as this

Basically the screen was stitched together from regular LCD controllers, and weren't particularly fast in changing pixel states if I remember correctly, which made scrolling rather fun.

I thought the Grid's were the seriously cool examples of laptops back in those days, however.

I had a Grid Compass for a short while, really looked like a bit of military hardware!
Whatever happened to bubble memory! I guess the bubble burst

yup. there are a couple of prototypes floating around here. pretty cool for the time.

where a couple of cute mobiles with touch screens and per-wifi wireless for medical. like a lot of stuff - never took off.

anyway so back on topic. i passed up an iris 2000 or 3000 when i went to pick up a 4d/380 up in a warehouse in Lowell. sadly it was missing parts, but she was a fine old rack mount beast!

Recently? How do you find all of this old iron??

nah, this was about 5 years back, at the peak of my power series collection; before i had to get rid of all the crimsons and predators (except the SkyWriter of course).

Ah, I didn't know you sold out! Those were some of the most amazing basement pictures, I especially liked the crimsons, my favorites...

don't think of it as a sell out really; i didn't dumpster the machines, they went to people that loved them and spent the day taking them apart and fitting them into a van. we had a great time. i don't think they were able to get the predators back together again which is too bad. but they really tried, the intent was there.

i do miss them, i was even thinking of painting them sometime; zebra, giraffe, elephant, panther.

there is one picture of one of my old cats ('allie'; she lived to be 18 years old) in the crimson shots.



besides i ended up replacing them with origins and onyx2. i needed room for more modern projects.

the SkyWriter is never leaving me! ever! i am going to be buried in it in the end better than a fridge, or a coffee machine i think! the coffin conversion - the true sgi diehard.

Finally got an ADM-3a on eBay. It's apparently not in working condition, but since they were offered as built-it-yourself kits it shouldn't be too difficult to repair

Yay ! That's great.. I know, how can one get excited over a terminal but hey, they look really nice and if you're used to using a ASR-33 Teletype ....

That could be on your list next, Neko. Clatter-clatter-bang bang is kind of a friendly sound thunking away in a back room of the house ... plus you have an excuse for ALL CAPS - "sorry, I was posting from my Teletype"

Hey, I got one of them hiding in the barn at my parent's place... old Model 15. Worked the last time I ran it (admittedly a while back now). 100 mA current loop...

Heh, I'm getting there. Just dragged home an IMSAI S-100 system, complete with external wood/metal tower containing dual full height 8" drives. Perfect system for an ADM-3a - terminal output only. Best of all, it was free

LOL - ok, that's a score.

Can you convert it into a jpeg?

[quote="87Porsche"]Found it on the net a long while ago.

Anyway here's a better version in PDF format, as well as the Adobe Illustrator file I used to create this...


hey I made one too! Though I couldn't afford it in color

Next thing we know, you will be running from the law because you just logged into protovision using "joshua" as the backdoor password and tried to nuke Las Vegas...

Heh - funny you should mention that; picked up another IMSAI yesterday. This one is an 8080 with the front panel LEDs and toggle switches - just like the one in WarGames

You are now the fourth member of this site that owns an 8080 that I know of.

Just remember, make sure you don't play tic-tac-toe, old computers tend to blow up playing that game.

LOL - I'm pretty sure it just got tired of it and decided it would rather play "a nice game of chess" instead