23 Apr
2020
23 Apr
'20
6:20 a.m.
On 4/22/20 11:42 PM, Thomas DeBellis wrote:
Oh, I'm in Looooong Island, South Shore.
Ahhh, New Yawwwk. You should head out this way at some point.
I actually have relatives not far from you in PA, but
I hadn't gotten
around to noodging you yet for the distinct lack of 20's in your
collection.? I mean, you have a 4341 yet no 20?? Tisk, tisk...
You sir are misinformed. There are three KS10s here.
Well, I'm pulling your leg a bit; a 20 is a
seriously heavy lift.? A KL
has three purposes in life: 1) Generate Heat, 2) Suck Power, 3) Run
winning code.? A 2020 uses far less power, but doesn't have extended
addressing, so it is stuck at Tops-20 4.1, which leaves out a lot of
DECnet (and ARPAnet) stuff.? Apparently, you can squeeze 5.0 in; MRC did
this, but that was MRC.? Tops-20 is at version 7.0 now.
Indeed.
And both of them are seriously cranky beasts that
needed care and
feeding from trained service personnel; wire wrap and all that (yech).?
Remember, it's not a mainframe unless you can't fit it in your house and
have to take out a second mortgage to pay for the electricity and tons
(60 for a 20) of air conditioning.
We're no strangers to cranky around here. ;)
So Paul Allen had a KL based 20, which is now in the
the Living Computer
museum.? But that cost was apparently less than a rounding error
compared to what he was worth.? A mere monetary blip, as it were.
Yep.
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire, AK4HZ
New Kensington, PA