Thursday, August 25, 2016

One is an urge to again work on a KI-10

I am back-filling here from emails, to get current.

Sent: Monday, March 9, 2015 7:58 PM
Subject:   One is an urge to again work on a KI-10

OK, My obsession is changing.
I now am thinking about building one. Not a copy, but a functional equivalent. Since I am not Paul Allen, I don’t think I could buy one.
Even at the time, I knew working on it that it was bigger than it needed to be. The design process took time(years) , and Dec was always conservative in using new technology, so they did not use the most complex TTL chips.

I think I could do a ‘desk sized’ unit for a few (ok a high few)  thousand dollars.

I am in vacation in Mexico right now, but it’s raining and there is nothing else to do in my casita…
Could take me a couple of years. Maybe more if the brain deteriorates…

Gary


Sent: Thursday, January 22, 2015 11:09 AM
Subject: There are several things that keep coming back to me. 
One is an urge to again work on a KI-10

I’ve said before and I’ll say again. I think the KI was the coolest ever.
It looked cool. You could clock tick by clock tick run stuff through registers, etc.

So there is a place that has purchased and rebuilt one. (OK I dream of that…)

In their words:

OPEN TO VIEW
Visitors are encouraged to come see and experience this 35-year-old machine that has been restored back to its original glory. The KI is a fantastic piece of engineering that was never replicated. It was a joy to use with its advanced virtual memory operating system, and for those who maintained them, they were a sight to behold with perhaps the most amazing control panel ever built for a computer system.
If you follow the article, you will be amused by the picture of the gentlemen working on the system.
Bummer is, it’s in Seattle, which I have never had a desire to visit.


Living Computer Museum
2245 First Avenue South
Seattle, WA 98134

No comments:

Post a Comment