🚀 go-pugleaf

> > A picture of a 9020 panel is published in the book of
> >
> > Paul E. Ceruzzi
> > A History of Modern Computing
> > MIT Press 1998
> > ISBN 0-262-03255-4
> > (Page 150)
> >
> > The panel look not like a 50 or 65.
> > No rollers !
> >
> > Can anyone comment this ?
> >
> > gv
> >
>
> I've seen 3 separate "large" control panels for 9020E.  First looks to be
> 360/65 derivative (Computing Element for 9020E--there were 3 of these in
an
> installation and each had 6 rollers).  Second looks to be 360/50
derivative
> (IO Control Element--there were 3 of these in an installation and each had
4
> rollers).  The third type is, I believe, a peripheral adapter module
control
> panel.  It has no rollers, but looks vaguely like a 360/40 panel (without
> the voltmeter).
>
> As a funny aside, I was sent a picture of the 3rd type of panel and a
> closeup of a price tag still attached on it.  It shows $2,213,784.15.  It
is
> dated March, 1970.  Not exactly pocket change today, much less 1970.
>
> Regards, Dan
>

The only "large" control panel in a 9020 system, other than the CE and IOCE
control panels, was the overall system control panel. This was called a
System Console (SC) in a 9020A/D CCC and a Configuration Console (CC) in a
9020E DCC. I've never seen a Configuration Console in the flesh, as we only
had a CCC at West Drayton. (I tell a lie - I would have seen one at
Oklahoma, but I don't recall what it looked like). I do have some
documentation, however, especially on the CCC. I now posses the old System
Console from the West Drayton CCC, but it's been wrapped up and in storage
for 10+ years. Without looking in the books, which I don't have to hand, I'm
trying to think of how to distinguish an SC from a CC. The SC had a black
'Mode Indicator' panel about 2" high by 6" long in the centre top position.
>From memory, the Config Console didn't have this (I'll check).

The most important bits of the System Console were the buzzer and the bell.
As far as I recall, the buzzer was triggered by software, and used to
indicate operator intervention required, and the like. It buzzed frequently,
and we soon became pretty indifferent to its operation. The bell was a
different matter, however! There was a watchdog circuit that rang the bell
when it timed-out. The operational NAS programme had a low-priority
subroutine that reset the watchdog timer. If the bell went off, 99 times out
of 100 it meant the system had crashed (or FLOP'ed, as we called it -
Functional Lapse of the Operational Programme). We could go weeks without
hearing the bell (other than after pressing "All Stop" on the System Console
after a routine shutdown at night), and hearing its distant ringing during
the day whilst having a cup of tea in the ready room always set the heart
racing and the adrenalin flowing - time to earn our pay!

I'm pretty sure the third panel you refer to isn't off the PAM. This box
didn't have an exterior 'control panel' as such (except for a tiny panel
with on/off, EPO, and state indicators). It had an internal CE ('customer
engineer' this time!) panel, but no-one would call this a "large" control
panel. I have one of these buried away somewhere too.

    Regards, Chris.

Email: Chris...@COLDmail.com
(Make the obvious temperature change to the spam deflector)