A Rare Find (I think)

[The Apprentice]

Okay, so I know there's a video game "find of the day" thread, but first of all this isn't a video game (it's actually one of my other hobbies), second, I have several questions about the hardware on the thing, and finally, since this is an odd item, it deserves an explanation rather than just, "I found an old IBM today for $10."

I was at the humane society thrift store the other day browsing the printer/keyboard/various unlabled computer cables section when I spotted a large white object with its shell almost completely torn off. I crouched down and looked at the unit. It was some sort of IBM, it had a neat sliding faceplate, a strange display I assumed was a temperature readout, and get this: a memory tape drive.

Now I don't know if you guys are aware, but I am a collector of old, strange computer equipment. I wanted the IBM, and I could have afforded it then, but I passed it up. The reason was that I already had two computers sitting on a large table in the screened in patio room, but because of the humidity of Florida both of them eventually failed. I was actually really upset that I lost my 486, which I'm now turning into a storage case for cds. So there's this huge mess out there, and my parents would lose it if I brought home another computer on a whim.

I regretted leaving it as soon as I left. I tried over and over again to get down there again, but I still don't have my liscense to drive so I had to wait a week...

But I got it. And I'm really glad I did. You see, this thing isn't your average computer from 1995. It's a 43P Model 140- RS/6000. That means it's a PowerPC 604E, a RISC computer IBM built for businesses. It's 200 Mhz, pretty fast for being 14 years old. On the back, there were these weird cards in the first two ISA slots, they look like printer connectors but have way more pins on them. It also has a circular port I can't identify, and another flat connector I dont really understand. It has no hard drive, so given the strange hardware, I'd say this thing has had former involvement with the government/millitary.

On two different websites, the price for one of these beasts (it's about 45 pounds) is $475. I got mine for a measily $10. All I have to do is get the video working on it, because it boots and seems to behave normally. It turns on, beeps out it errors of "no video card" and "no keyboard", checks the floppy and cd drive, and then plays a sound effect from its internal speaker.

I'll have pictures tommarow. I'm really exited!

[miked]

The computer repair shop I work at has tons of neat stuff. 8" floppy drives, tape backup systems and tons of sealed old school software. I kinda have my eye on the sealed copy of the original Flight Simulator in the tall cardboard box.

I think the coolest thing they have is a 1979 hard drive from a college file server. The disks in it are freakin huge (like 6" or so) and it holds an amazing 4 MB. Even cooler its a Seagate.

[RyaNtheSlayA]

Okay, so I know there's a video game "find of the day" thread, but first of all this isn't a video game (it's actually one of my other hobbies), second, I have several questions about the hardware on the thing, and finally, since this is an odd item, it deserves an explanation rather than just, "I found an old IBM today for $10."

I was at the humane society thrift store the other day browsing the printer/keyboard/various unlabled computer cables section when I spotted a large white object with its shell almost completely torn off. I crouched down and looked at the unit. It was some sort of IBM, it had a neat sliding faceplate, a strange display I assumed was a temperature readout, and get this: a memory tape drive.

Now I don't know if you guys are aware, but I am a collector of old, strange computer equipment. I wanted the IBM, and I could have afforded it then, but I passed it up. The reason was that I already had two computers sitting on a large table in the screened in patio room, but because of the humidity of Florida both of them eventually failed. I was actually really upset that I lost my 486, which I'm now turning into a storage case for cds. So there's this huge mess out there, and my parents would lose it if I brought home another computer on a whim.

I regretted leaving it as soon as I left. I tried over and over again to get down there again, but I still don't have my liscense to drive so I had to wait a week...

But I got it. And I'm really glad I did. You see, this thing isn't your average computer from 1995. It's a 43P Model 140- RS/6000. That means it's a PowerPC 604E, a RISC computer IBM built for businesses. It's 200 Mhz, pretty fast for being 14 years old. On the back, there were these weird cards in the first two ISA slots, they look like printer connectors but have way more pins on them. It also has a circular port I can't identify, and another flat connector I dont really understand. It has no hard drive, so given the strange hardware, I'd say this thing has had former involvement with the government/millitary.

On two different websites, the price for one of these beasts (it's about 45 pounds) is $475. I got mine for a measily $10. All I have to do is get the video working on it, because it boots and seems to behave normally. It turns on, beeps out it errors of "no video card" and "no keyboard", checks the floppy and cd drive, and then plays a sound effect from its internal speaker.

I'll have pictures tommarow. I'm really exited!

I love collecting older laptops and IBM is my specialty. Thats a very good find sir. I envy you. Currently Ive got the following older computers myself:

IBM ThinkPad 600 (x3)
IBM ThinkPad 380 and 385
IBM ThinkPad 701
Commodore 64
Apple 2
IBM 5150
Macintosh
Macintosh 2
Powerbook G3
PowerMac G3
Apple Lisa
Atari XE
iBook G3

too bad the Lisa and Atari dont work anymore and the 5150 is giving me trouble now too

[otaku]

I would collect old computer stuff if I had the room but don't really (too many new machines) apple stuff and alienware/voodoo stuff would be great.

[Hatta]

I love old computers too. Can't really justify the space though. I was playing with my Apple IIgs last night (awesome port of Arkanoid, really gorgeous) and was thinking how nice it would be to have a 2-486 again to play some of the classics on real hardware. Of course, then I'd have to track down an old soundblaster, screw with config.sys again...

Of course, your machine probably isn't the best for games. What are you going to do with it?

[PhilExile]

Ha, that sounds cool. Definitely post picts.

I remember a friend of mine in college had a similar configuration as a Power Computing Mac clone. I think it was a 604e 180 mhz. He was pissed when the G3 debuted about 4 months later and blew his machine away performance-wise.

[The Apprentice]

Sorry, but I won't be able to post pictures tonight of my unit, but this is what it looks like:


Borrowed from here: http://www-user.tu-chemnitz.de/

Yeah, so the two connectors on the back that weren't stock had 78 pins each. I still don't know what they were for. Still haven't gotten video working, but I'm looking at everything I can do to fix that.

[Mod_Man_Extreme]

I looks almost exactly like the servers my old elementary school had.