Workstations

If minicomputers represented the first wave of "disruptive technology" to affect the installed computing base, then workstations were the second wave - with personal computers the third wave. Workstations were characterized by networking, bitmapped graphics and a graphical user interface. The GUI generally followed the Xerox model with mice and keyboards for input.

Workstations were first produced in the 1980s, most notably from Sun Microsystems. Many different vendors offered workstation products with differentiating value-added elements such as 3D graphics or support for particular applications. Workstations were typically used in a computer aided design (CAD) capacity in support of various engineering disciplines with mechanical and electrical engineering at the forefront of CAD applications.

Current holdings in the collection:

• 4 Diser Lilith workstations (upgraded to Eves)
  • Acquired: by donation.
  • Status: Untested
  • Documentation: No
  • Accessories:
    • Bernoulli cartridge drives
    • Bernoulli cartridges
    • Monitor
    • Spare boards
    • Video, printer, keyboard cabling
    • SCSI interface
• Evans & Sutherland ESV/50
  • Acquired: by donation from a former employer.
  • Status: needs power supply repair
  • Documentation: Yes
  • Accessories:
    • Resource Data Concentrator
    • Knob box
    • Optical mouse
    • CDRS modelling software
• Evans & Sutherland Freedom 1000 accelerator
  • Acquired: by donation from a former employer.
  • Status: Untested
  • Documentation: No
• Evans & Sutherland Freedom 3000 accelerator
  • Acquired: by donation from a former employer.
  • Status: Untested
  • Documentation: No
• Evans & Sutherland Advanced Rendering System
  • Acquired: by donation from a former employer.
  • Status: Missing 1 board that I donated to a former E&S coworker as a memento. I never got it hooked up and running anyway.
  • Documentation: No
• Megatek Valuator 01-0524-01
  • Acquired: 29-Jan-2006 on ebay for $28.00
  • Status: Untested
  • Documentation: No
  • Notes: 8 dials, the underside has a bar that folds out to increase the angle of the dials, what appears to be a serial connection through a DB9 style connector is on the back.
• Megatek Digitizing Tablet
  • Acquired: 6-Mar-2006 on ebay for $5.00
  • Status: Untested
  • Documentation: No
  • Accessories:
    • 3 3-button pucks
    • 2 pen styluses
    • 3 Summagraphics controllers with 8080A microprocessors, rebranded with a Megatek enclosure
• Silicon Graphics Indigo² R10000
  • Acquired: 29-Jan-2006 on ebay for $88.00
  • Status: Untested
  • Documentation: No
  • Accessories: case feet, SGI keyboard, SGI mouse
• Sun 3/110
  • Acquired: by donation.
  • Status: Untested
  • Documentation: No
  • Accessories:
    • Expansion box
    • Sun keyboard
• Sun SPARCStation 5 110 MHz
  • Acquired: 14-Feb-2006 for $5.00 on ebay
  • Status: Untested, reported working
  • Documentation: No
  • Accessories:
    • GPIB interface
    • Sun keyboard