[tech] Project "What is this thing?" #1 - BeBox

Fri May 11 07:15:40 AWST 2018

I found some further information about the bebox prototype on a page where someone is selling one. Pasted below in case the site ever goes away: https://www.flickr.com/photos/abeles/16011269386

Interesting to note from the post that it takes 72 pin 60ns RAM SIIMMS – we may have some in the “to ebay” box that would allow us to boot it up.

-- bob

BeBox prototype & BeOS Preview Release - for sale!

Be Incorporated was an American computer company founded in 1990, best known for the Be Operating System (BeOS) and BeBox personal computer. Be was founded by former Apple Computer executive Jean-Louis Gassée,

The BeOS ran on the BeBox, but was later ported to Apple Computer's Power Macs.

This is one of the first 100 BeBox computers, hand made by Be employees, and delivered to software developers in 1995. These early machines didn't have front Bezels, and carried a sticker which said:

"Attention! This device has not been approved by the Federal Communications Commission. This device is not, and may not be offered for sale or lease, or sold until the approval of the FCC has been obtained."

Be did get FCC approval in 1996. Only about 1800 total BeBox's were ever sold.

Installed in the unit is the original Altatron motherboard. No memory and no CD Rom (both required to get the machine to run).

The seller suggested, "Personally, I would run 4.5.2. 5.0.3 will run on this machine, make sure you have the PPC version, not the Intel version. There are some quirks which shouldn't effect this machine (blinkenlights won't work on production machine, etc....). Also, make sure you choose your VGA card wisely. A Matrox Millenium card should work well with 5.0.3."

"This is different from the BeBox's that were actually sold to consumers (developers) in 1996. There are several more 'connections' on the rear which didn't make it into the production units, and these units didn't have front bezels, or the cool dual CPU lights (blinkenlights) that the production units had

"This didn't come with a keyboard, mouse or display. Be didn't sell these, instead they decided to use industry standards... this can use standard PC mice / keyboards.

"These use old-school RAM SIMMS. Specifically, 72 pin 60ns RAM SIIMMS.

From: tech-bounces+bob=ucc.gu.uwa.edu.au at ucc.gu.uwa.edu.au [mailto:tech-bounces+bob=ucc.gu.uwa.edu.au at ucc.gu.uwa.edu.au] On Behalf Of Alex Dawson
Sent: Thursday, 10 May 2018 9:50 PM
To: Felix von Perger <frekk at ucc.asn.au>
Cc: tech at ucc.asn.au
Subject: Re: [tech] Project "What is this thing?" #1 - BeBox

This is one of the two BeBox’en UCC has - the other has a front panel and is in one of the loft cupboards. 

This one is a pre-release prototype, donated to UCC along with the other one by Peter N Lewis. 

[LE@] (Elliot Nunn) and I tried getting both of them going in early 2012 - we had magenta, the production one, booting, but did not have sufficient spares and time to get this one going. 

More info on the BeBoxen - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BeBox, the prototypes - https://www.flickr.com/photos/abeles/15850994039 and Be - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Be_Inc.

As for the questions:

            • What is it? Does it have a name? - unknown, other one is magenta

            • What vintage is it, when was it made and when was it donated? 1995, donated by Peter N Lewis at some point in the past apparently

            • Who was involved in using, breaking, fixing or building it? Jean Louis Gasse, an early Apple pioneer

            • What was it used for? What can it do? What is its story? - Unknown

            • If essential parts are missing from the photos, where might they be? What did they do and what do they look like? - Probably, it was non functional as of April 2012

            • Does it still work? How do you use it? Is there any existing documentation? - Non functional as of 2012

            • Is it worth keeping? Why does the club need it? Would anyone want it if the club is going to throw it out? Honestly, imo it is not worth the club keeping so that someone can look at it every 10 years.. BUT.. dear god don’t throw it out, it is a piece of computer history and should be preserved

I’m sure someone on this list is still in contact with Peter N Lewis - I believe we should seek his blessing, and try to broker their sale, or donation to a computer museum - they are still worth about $1500 each - http://forums.nekochan.net/viewtopic.php?t=16731890

This prototype one has the lowest serial number known 

On 10 May 2018, at 8:46 pm, Felix von Perger <frekk at ucc.asn.au <mailto:frekk at ucc.asn.au> > wrote:

Dear tech subscribers,

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.

So that's why I've decided to start a project to document (on the wiki) all of the miscellaneous computery things that the club owns.

I'll be sending out emails on a fairly regular basis, each with photos of an item 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:

*	What is it? Does it have a name?
*	What vintage is it, when was it made and when was it donated?
*	Who was involved in using, breaking, fixing or building it? 
*	What was it used for? What can it do? What is its story?
*	If essential parts are missing from the photos, where might they be? What did they do and what do they look like?
*	Does it still work? How do you use it? Is there any existing documentation?
*	Is it worth keeping? Why does the club need it? Would anyone want it if the club is going to throw it out?

The information gathered from this project will be made available on the wiki page <http://wiki.ucc.asn.au/ProjectWhatIsThat> . 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.

Thank you for your contributions and I hope that this project will be informative and entertaining for everyone involved.

  _____  

The first item I looked at was the computer with a blue case retrieved from the top shelf behind the door.

Photo of the backplane

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Photo of the front (no faceplate was present)

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Photo of the whole box, looking at it from the back.

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And finally, a photo showing the guts.

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  _____  

If you know anything about this and can answer any of the questions listed above relating to the thing in the photos, please don't hesitate to reply to this email or send me the details at frekk at ucc.asn.au <mailto:frekk at ucc.asn.au> .

Kind regards,

Felix von Perger
UCC Secretary 2018

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