----- Ursprüngliche Message ----- > Von: Rich Alderson <ri...@livingcomputermuseum.org> > An: 'General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts' <cctalk@classiccmp.org> > CC: > Gesendet: 22:15 Montag, 2.November 2015 > Betreff: RE: youtube video of a runnning XDS Sigma mainframe with lots of > nice peripherals > > From: Lee Courtney > Sent: Saturday, October 31, 2015 10:37 AM > >> I posted the video you linked to. The machines on the video belonged to >> George Plue, who ran a medical billing service bureau in Flagstaff AZ. They >> are now located at the Living Computer Museum (LCM) in Seattle. > >> George originally ran the Computer Center at Anderson University in Berrien > Andrews >> Springs MI, and the center ran several generations of SDS the XDS Sigma >> mainframes over the years. When Xerox decided to get out of the mainframe >> computing business in August 1975 the market for Sigmas essentially >> collapsed despite Honeywell agreeing to buy the carcass of the business. >> George and a partner got into the used Sigma HW business and he maintained >> a stock of HW, SW and documentation at his home in MI. More info here: >> http://www.andrews.edu/~calkins/profess/SDSigma7.htm > > George's partner was Stan Ritland, who came from a family of doctors but who > did not like medicine as a career path himself. They located the business in > Flagstaff to take advantage of the built in customer base made up of Stan's > three brothers; their offices were across the street from the main hospital, > and they quickly grew. > > (George, an only child, met Stan when they were 8 years old. They were best > friends for nearly 60 years, and George spent as much time at Stan's home as > at his own growing up.) > >> I'm unclear on when he acquired his second home in Flagstaff, but he > had a >> typical ranch style house in Flagstaff. The big difference being that he >> had installed a significantly larger electrical feed with three-phase power >> than one would find in a residence, and the downstairs family and bedrooms >> were used as the machine room in the video. > > The reason George *bought* the house was that there was already a 220V service > running across the back of the property, so that running 220V into the house > was a lot less expensive than usual. > > The basement in which the computers and peripherals were a tilt-up add-on to > the original house. > >> I visited George in the early 2000's (I think) and at that time he had > a >> fully configured Sigma-9 and Sigma-8 mainframes, along with several tape >> drives, and string of DASD. Yes, the machine room was strewn with >> printouts, docs, partially finished projects, tapes, etc. But all the >> machines worked and it was glorious. ;-) > > It's a Sigma 6, not a Sigma 8. The 6 was a clone of the 7 and 9 built for > the > education market with all of the usually unbundled products included in the > license for CP-V. > >> Unfortunately George passed away a few years ago. All the HW and SW that >> was in running condition was rescued by the LCM in Seattle. I know LCM has >> had someone with Sigma experience working on and off on the Sigma to get it >> running again. Not sure of the current status. But, that would be an >> awesome time-sharing system alongside the DEC-20 they have. > > Not just running condition. 100,000 pounds of gear, including the 9, 6, and a > 7 that had been retired in the 90s, spares for all of them, the 8 running disk > drives and 4 running tape drives, along with about 20 more disk drives (the > older 50MB hydraulic units) from the 7. Five 24' trucks, driven by Stan and > his > brothers from Flagstaff to Seattle. > > My colleague Keith and I spent 3 days in Flagstaff deinstalling everything, > while Stan, 2 of his brothers, and George's wife, daughter, and > granddaughter > looked on, labeled, packed, fed us, forklifted onto the trucks, and celebrated > George's life. > >> There was also a group in AZ working on restoring a Sigma mainframe, maybe >> some of Georges collection. He also had a complete Sigma-7 and a boatload >> of Honeywell peripherals in his garage in Flagstaff. The AZ group was very >> energetic, but I have not heard any updates in several years. Having worked >> on CHM's first restoration, the IBM 1620, from start to finish I know > its a >> huge undertaking to get even a relatively straightforward machine up and >> running. > > No, George helped them, but he was running a Sigma support business; he was > not > inclined to give things away. > > George Plue was a true wizard. One of his creations was a SCSI interface for > the Sigma 9 which allowed him to copy magnetic tape files to DAT (not, as we > all know now, the best choice of medium, but remarkable for all that). > > George was also a true gentleman, as is Stan Ritland. It was a privilege to > know George for the short time that I did. We met about a year and a half > before his untimely passing, thanks to Lee Courtney. > > Rich >
Lee and Rich, thanks a million for sharing your life experiences in this area and your memories about George and his commitment regarding the preservation of these Sigma systems!!! Kind regards, Pierre ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Pierre's collection of classic computers moved to: http://www.digitalheritage.de