I loved the machine room in the LCM. It was my favorite place in the museum.
I had been a student operator of the machine room at my university in the late 80s. When I first walked into the LCM machine room I was instantly transported back. The sound, the all-surrounding light level from the bright fluorescent lights reflected off the raised floor tiles, and most surreally - the smell. All the ozone coming off the machines gave the air a distinct, slightly sour but not unpleasant aroma that I have only experienced in a proper machine room. It was a collection of sensations I had all but forgotten. Also, the machine room was where I encountered my first AT&T 5620 terminal outside my own and a couple that some friends picked up from our university surplus. I was absolutely giddy about that - demonstrating to largely disinterested friends show COOL that terminal was, that it was that it had multiple terminals windows...multiplexed through a single 9600 baud serial port! Friends who had grown up on windows and macs didn't see how incredible and groundbreaking that particular device was when it was released. Well...maybe I my excitement I conveyed a little bit of that... 😊 It's a shame there really aren't any places like that. Seeing a CDC6500 powered off and behind a velvet rope just isn't the same as seeing it on and operating, in its natural environment, surrounded by a collection of its equally impressive peers and tended by volunteers happy to answer questions. -mike -----Original Message----- From: David C. Jenner via cctalk <[email protected]> Sent: Saturday, September 14, 2024 10:23 PM To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts <[email protected]> Cc: David C. Jenner <[email protected]> Subject: [cctalk] Re: auction starting in 50 minutes Yes, LCM had just the console. I left UCLA and moved to CDC land at UW-Seattle in '78. I don't know what happened to, or replaced, the 360/91. The main machine room at LCM was impressive. At one time I had used all the (types of) machines in it. Dave On 9/13/24 8:21 PM, Mark Huffstutter via cctalk wrote: > I think David meant He saw them working on refurbishing the panel > itself. LCM Staff designed and Built the circuitry to generate the > pseudo blinkenlights effect, along with converting to LEDs. As I > recall, the Panel was the only thing left of the original 360/91. I do > remember Paul Allen had spent a lot of time looking For a restorable > 360, ending up with mostly bad tips. Flew a Guy to a storage building in > Australia, only to Discover in person....nope. An article mentioned that, > since 360s were pretty much leased machines, they Returned to IBM for summary > execution..... > > The LCM was working on rebuilding a 360/30 they did locate, a > considerably smaller entry level 360. > When I last saw it they had considerable power supply rebuilding to > accomplish. > > Mark > > -----Original Message----- > From: Fred Cisin via cctalk <[email protected]> > Sent: Friday, September 13, 2024 7:43 PM > To: David C. Jenner <[email protected]> > Cc: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts > <[email protected]>; Fred Cisin <[email protected]> > Subject: [cctalk] Re: auction starting in 50 minutes > >>>> And perhaps craziest of all, $189k for a 360/91 console display. >>>> Just the lights panel, nothing more. >>> Well, that might be all thatthe interior decorators wanted, for >>> hanging on the wall > > On Fri, 13 Sep 2024, David C. Jenner wrote: >> This was from the 360/91 at UCLA when I was there in the 1970s. I >> recall seeing them working on refurbishing it when I was last at the >> LCM a few years ago. > > If the machine was being refurbished, why was the console display separated > from the machine?
