I'm writing this note because I came across some romantic musings about the Interdata 8/32, a core memory machine that was one of the early UNIX targets. I spent a lot of time with this machine, and have some fond memories of it. We (Combustion Engineering, particularly me, Dan Mullen and Jeff Katz) implemented a pretty extensive power plant safety system simulator test-project on the machine under Perkin-Elmer's OS/32. We developed the code in Connecticut. When we were ready for delivery, I recall simply turning the key and shutting it off. The packers crated it. We shipped it by boat to Finland. I caught up to the machine in Finland a month later, or so (this is in 1982)

I spent a couple of hours re-strapping power supplies for 220v, 50Hz. Really, one of the hours was spent being nervous. Only one thing blew up--a surge capacitor that thought 220v was a bit out of range of 110v. The machine had an astonomically large 1 Mb of core memory. Core never forgets. I powered up the machine and it was sitting right where I'd left it, waiting for the next command.

Here's a shot of my head sticking through the peripheral cabinet at the Loviisan voimalassa.

Nokia was the regional Perkin-Elmer (Interdata) dealer. At one point, I had a problem with a processor board. They came out to the power plant. They were reluctant to help at first, thinking that I was trying to sell computers into their patch. But after we got over that, they were a great help (Thanks).

When the project was over and the machine eventually returned home, we put UNIX on it, played with it a little, and then let time take it.

I don't want to sound like an old curmudgeon, but computing in those says was exciting in different ways than it is today. There was a bit of a wilderness/priesthood feel to it. Assembly language and wire-wrap tools had a role. I recall feeling a little bit of revulsion when GUIs became popular--like we were putting a mustache and glasses disguise on the operating system, and letting the unwashed touch the machine. I'm over it.

-Kevin

Here are few more pictures in case members of the project Ari Kautto, Eric Holnagel, Ed (forgot last name), Harri Heimberger, Lena Tuominen or Ken Rohde google after themselves.