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<p>Dear tech subscribers,</p>
<p>As many of you know, there are a lot of old-looking computery
things stored around the clubroom, and newer members (such as
myself) often don't have any idea what they are or why they are
there.<br>
</p>
<p>I'll try to send out emails on a fairly regular basis, each with
photos of items found on shelves or under desks. If you recognise
the object in question, or if you know anything about its history,
then please reply to this email and contribute to the project by
answering any of the following questions:</p>
<ul>
<li>What is it? Does it have a name?<br>
</li>
<li>What vintage is it, when was it made and when was it donated?</li>
<li>Who was involved in using, breaking, fixing or building it? </li>
<li>What was it used for? What can it do? What is its story?<br>
</li>
<li>If essential parts are missing from the photos, where might
they be? What did they do and what do they look like?<br>
</li>
<li>Does it still work? How do you use it? Is there any existing
documentation?</li>
<li>Is it worth keeping? Why does the club need it? Would anyone
want it if the club is going to throw it out?</li>
</ul>
<p>The information gathered from this project will be made available
on the main <a href="http://wiki.ucc.asn.au/ProjectWhatIsThat"
moz-do-not-send="true">wiki page</a>. As more items are
documented, I will make a new wiki page for each item and add a
link to it on the main project page.<br>
</p>
<p>Thank you for your contributions and I hope that this project
will be informative and entertaining for everyone involved.<br>
</p>
<hr size="2" width="100%"><br>
The second instalment of this series resulted in what was allegedly
part of the "original" Murphy (or murphies) being dragged out from
under the desks.<br>
<br>
After filling a whole carton with 8" disks that were previously
stacked inside of the box and a lot of dusting, this was the result.
The text on the middle handwritten label on the AM-500 front panel
reads "Sealed by [JMJ] Do not open!!!!". <br>
<br>
The case has a number of ports on the side, a number of scarily
large capacitors in the bottom of the case and an empty S-100
backplane.<br>
<br>
<img src="cid:part2.F9DC2DD5.64ED743F@ucc.asn.au" alt=""
moz-do-not-send="false" height="300" width="400"><img
src="cid:part3.D84E2A77.02EE5355@ucc.asn.au" alt=""
moz-do-not-send="false" height="300" width="400"><br>
<br>
Does anyone know what boards would have been installed in this box
and what might have happened to them? Understandably to boot it must
have had storage of some kind or some kind of ROM (if it was even a
computer on its own). Specifically regarding this blue box, is it
worth anything to the club and if it were to be thrown away would
anyone want it (or want to sell it for us)?<br>
<br>
Next to "murphy" under the desk was the computery thing with a
wooden case. It seems like the power button needs a key to operate
(anyone know where that might be? :P). Fortunately the case is
reasonably airtight so everything inside was in a relatively
dust-free condition.<br>
<br>
Talking to [JVP] confirmed that the 8" disk drive in this box was
one of the original drives used by Murphy (and uses a voice-coil
actuated head and electronic disk ejection), although apparently was
not originally used in this particular hardware configuration.<br>
<br>
<img src="cid:part4.8009C4D1.560A46A7@ucc.asn.au" alt=""
moz-do-not-send="false" height="300" width="400"><img
src="cid:part5.975AEDBC.53CF92AC@ucc.asn.au" alt=""
moz-do-not-send="false" height="300" width="400"><br>
<br>
Loose inside the case was a single 8" floppy drive, a plastic bag
containing a stack of paper documentation including a description of
the S-100 bus, a transparent sheet of plastic with what appears to
be the original mask/artwork used to create the green-grey circuit
board visible at the front of the photo on the left (below) and a
loose 50pin cable that looks like it could be used to connect to the
floppy drive.<br>
<img src="cid:part6.83CE52EB.007990B5@ucc.asn.au" alt=""
moz-do-not-send="false" height="300" width="400"><img
src="cid:part7.25C4A8D5.232719BA@ucc.asn.au" alt=""
moz-do-not-send="false" height="300" width="400"><br>
<br>
The wooden box seems to have a full assortment of boards mounted on
its backplane (including what looks like a handmade diagnostics
board, two CPU boards (connected by ribbon cable), 4*16K memory
boards, a disk controller (complete with ROM to boot from floppy)
and an IO board (6 serial ports according to [JVP]).<br>
<br>
Is this a full Alpha Micro computer and could it be possible to
power it on? If one were to test, what steps would be necessary to
ensure that any failing/failed components do not cause damage to the
rest? When was it last powered on successfully? Also, what hardware
and software would be required to get it to boot and produce an
output of some sort?<br>
<br>
Hopefully this raises some interesting discussions and I appreciate
any time you may be able to devote to having a look.<br>
<br>
Thank you for your contributions,<br>
<br>
Felix von Perger<br>
UCC Secretary 2018<br>
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