3 Jan
2023
3 Jan
'23
12:36 a.m.
On Mon, Jan 2, 2023 at 1:13 PM Clem Cole <clemc(a)ccc.com> wrote:
Maybe this should go to COFF but Adam I fear you are
falling into a tap that is easy to fall into - old == unused
One of my favorite stores in the computer restoration community is from 5-10 years ago
and the LCM+L in Seatle was restoring their CDC-6000 that they got From Purdue. Core
memory is difficult to get, so they made a card and physical module that could plug into
their system that is both electrically and mechanically equivalent using modern
semiconductors. A few weeks later they announced that they had the system running and
had built this module. They got approached by the USAF asking if they could get a copy of
the design. Seems, there was still a least one CDC-6600 running a particular critical
application somewhere.
This is similar to the PDP-11s and Vaxen that are supposed to be still in the
hydroelectric grid [a few years ago the was an ad for an RSX and VMS programmer to go to
Canada running in the Boston newspapers - I know someone that did a small amount of
consulting on that one].
One of my favorite stories along these lines is the train signalling
system in Melbourne, running on a "PDP-11". I quote PDP-11 because
that is now virtualized:
https://www.equicon.de/images/Virtualisierung/LegacyTrainControlSystemStabi…
Indeed older systems show up in surprising places. I was once on the
bridge of a US Naval vessel in the late '00s and saw a SPARCstaton 20
running Solaris (with the CDE login screen). I don't recall what it
was doing, but it was a tad surprising.
I do worry about legacy systems in critical situations, but then, I've
been in a firefight when the damned tactical computer with the satcomm
link rebooted and we didn't have VHF comms with the battlespace owner.
That was not particularly fun.
- Dan C.