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bye-tymshare
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Internet Message Format
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1997-11-24
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6KB
Date: Thu, 7 Mar 96 02:08:12 PST
From: carl@tardis.Tymnet.COM (Carl A Baltrunas)
To: tops-20@Panda.COM
Subject: Shutdown of the last 4 Tymshare KL-10s
I'm reprinting here a copy of the message I posted to alt.sys.pdp10 and
had forgotten to send off to this list until Joe Smith reminded me today.
Date: Sun, 25 Feb 96 03:22:52 PDT
Organization: Catalyst Art
Reply-To: carl@1unique.com, carl@reststop.com or carl@tymnet.com
Well,
It is time.... they are seriously pursuing the shutdown of
the last four KL-10s at Tymshare, a.k.a. MCI these days. As far
as I know there will be no hoopla. The machines are scheduled
to be decomissioned, shut down, etc. the end of February 1996.
They will do final backups of the data, and then start the
process of dismantling the machines.
I am not sure if they have a buyer for the parts, but if anyone
is interested, please contact me, or Joe Smith at MCI and we
will put you in contact with the people who are attempting to
sell off the hardware. (possibly to Novadyne for parts, or some
other group for scrap).
Our current PDP-10 applications have been effectively moved off
to *nix, IBM or other platforms. One application has been moved
off to an XKL TOAD-1 and other than some growing pains and the
unfixed bugs in TOPS-20 that we've aggravated by throwing nearly
200 simultaneous users at it. The lifespan of that application
is still under debate, but the XKL team has provided necessary
support and bug fixes (much faster than I recall DEC ever coming
up with a quick fix) along the way.
*** If you are seriously interested in these machines, please
*** contact me as soon as possible so that I can pass your name
*** off to the people trying to dispose of the equipment.
We have 4 KL-10s, at least 4 SA-10 interfaces, numerous memorex
3650 and 3652 disk drives and controllers (I forget the 36xx #)
on these systems. No NI or CI interfaces as we have our own
custom network interface to TYMNET for connectivity. Some number
of STC tape drives and controllers as well. All disk/tape drives
have been connected via the SA-10 interface.
-Carl Baltrunas, MCI Network Services, San Jose.
408-922-6206, carl@tymnet.com, carl@teststop.com
You may also contact Joe Smith, MCI Network Services, San Jose.
408-922-6220, jms@tymnet.com, jsmith@inwap.com
===========
An update: 06-Mar-96
I am still not aware that any buyers have been lined up, but do not have
an inkling of what MCI might consider these machines to be worth. I have
a contact from the Computer History Association of California, The Computer
Museum (even with all the hoopla about how machines have been cut up and
sold) and one or two others.
*** If you are at all interested in paying for the decommissioning or
*** shipping of these boxes to some other location, please contact me or
*** Joe smith at the addresses given above.
===========
This is truly the end of an era of 36-bit computing at Tymshare (or whatever
we're called these days). At one time, I counted over 40 PDP-10 processors
from KA-10's, KI-10's, KL-10's, KS-10's, Foonly F3's and Foonly F4's running
various flavors of TENEX and TYMCOM-X (also called TYMCOM-XX on the KS-10)
up and running on the network.
Tymshare, Inc. as a timesharing service bureau and custom consulting company
with their own flavor of operating system and various utilities built out of
the Digital Equipment Corporation TOPS-10 5.02 series monitor has now become
another milestone in the history of computing. The last 4 systems were powered
off on Friday, March 1st, 1996. These were serial numbers 1354 (F34), 1388
(F38), 1421 (F32) and 1427 (F26) where the numbers in parentheses designate
the location "F" for Fremont California, and the 2-digit host numbers were the
TYMNET host numbers.
A fitting eulogy should be written, and I will be soliciting comments and
brief stories from many of the people who worked on these machines over the
years (if they can still be contacted) in order to make an attempt at one.
TYMCOM-X ran most any language that was available for TOPS-10 and many that
were ported from Stanford WAITS (such as SAIL) or rewritten from the SDS-940
such as SIMPL. Tymshare ran DEC's F40 compiler and linker 'LOADER' until
the very end, long past even the life that DEC envisioned for the product.
Database systems such as Software House's 1022 were available and in full
production use until last December 18th (1995) when that production system
was brought up on an XKL Systems TOAD-1 [and is still running today :-)].
Other than being an orhpan step-child of an operating system, TYMCOM-X had
the best of TOPS-10 and TOPS-20; a quick scheduler, a lean operating system,
network connectivity, sharable pages by file, fork, absolute memory or
absolute disk page (your choice, depending upon privileges), license or
capability flags which could be placed on jobs, forks or programs with
more security than TOPS-20 file and directory groups since a program could
be setup with directory access privileges which ordinary users could not
override.
The last major monitor version was P036/E with a couple of revisions and
patches. (What decent monitor was ever worth anything without patches ;-)
It's an amazing system. And now it is gone. ..but not forgotten.
Novadyne Computer Systems is in the throes of disconnecting cables to
Memorex 3650 and 3652 disk drives, System Concept's SA-10s, STC tape drives
and AMPEX ARM-10 LX memory boxes. At least one system is reported as
completely de-installed, the rest will soon follow.
No firm date for when the boxes will be dropped off the loading dock... er..
um... I mean.. shipped out to whomever claims them... let's hope that they
are either purchased by someone who wants one or more in working order or
that they are donated to a worthy Museum or Historical Society. However,
they are moving pretty quick to de-install them, I wouldn't wait long if
you are interested in getting one of these systems intact.
-Carl
Carl A Baltrunas; MCI Network Services, DSO; Product & Technical Support
(408) 922-6206 Systems Technical Support, San Jose, California.
carl@tymnet.com, carl@reststop.com, carl@1unique.com