Thank You to Clive Dawson for this fantastic info! What Clive is discussing here fits together perfectly with info from the PDP-10 serial numbers webpage, as discussed below in the Notes.
I am not aware of a dual KL DEC-10 on the UT Austin campus. The KI DEC-10 was in the Humanities Research Center (HRC) (Now known as the Harry Ransom Center). The Research DEC-20, named "UTEXAS-20" on the early ARPANET and R20.UTEXAS.EDU after the domain system came about in 1983, was in Painter Hall. The Academic DEC-20, named the A20, was housed in the Graduate School of Business (GSB) which was, incidentally, built on the site of the old Pearce Hall.
Any report of DECWAR being played on a TOPS-10 Dual KL would not have occurred on the UT Austin campus. The Texas State Board of Control, which later became Texas State Purchasing and General Services Commission, had at least one KL, possibly a dual KL. I believe that Tommy Loomis, a systems programmer who worked with me on the KI DEC-10, moved over there sometime after the demise of the KI, so maybe he took DECWAR with him?! Another nearby KL (possibly dual?) was at Southwest Texas State University in San Marcos (now Texas State University). I’m pretty positive that DECWAR was running on that system.
An intriguing question is whether DECWAR was ever ported to TOPS-20. It never ran on the Research 20 (I would’ve known about it) but perhaps it found its way to the Academic 20? DEC supplied a piece of software called PA1050 (aka “the compatibility package”) which allowed most TOPS-10 programs to run on TOPS-20. But the memory organization of both operating systems was very different, so I’m guessing that porting DECWAR would have required a bunch of extra effort (i.e. a complete rewrite of the MACRO code) considering the tricks it employed with the shareable high segment.
We also have the following from the PDP-10 serial numbers webpage
1360 TOPS-10 Texas St. Purc., Austin, TX KL1099D CPU0?
2908 TOPS-10 (SATURN::) Southwest Texas University, San Marcos, TX KL1095
[1] Now Texas St. Purc makes sense!!! Thank you Clive:)
[2] This is where teenage me played DECWAR, circa 83 to 85!:)
[3] History and Functions of the Texas Board of Control. Published: 1976. The Board of Control was established by the Texas legislature in 1919 and was composed of three members appointed by the governor for six-year, overlapping terms. The major duties of the board were to purchase supplies for the departments and eleemosynary and educational institutions of the state; control the state's public buildings and grounds; rent extra buildings and offices for state agencies; prepare the biennial appropriation budget and submit it to the governor; and control the state historical parks. ... In the 1970s the board's responsibilities included managing a system of telecommunications services for state agencies. It maintained a central office-supply store, messenger service, and telephone service, as well as an office-machine repair service. The agency was organized into six divisions: Central Purchasing, Centralized Services, Automated Services, Building and Property Services, Security, and Telecommunications Services. In 1979 the Board of Control was abolished and replaced by the State Purchasing and General Services Commission.
Tommy Loomis. Thank you to Rich Denney, with the antennae, for these photos!
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| Sam Houston State Office Building on the Capitol's grounds. Could be that the dual KL was in here? |
Quick note that we're looking at another possiblity as well:) From Clive "Come to think of it, the only dual KLs I can recall on a UT campus in the 70s and 80s would have been the ones at UT Health Science Center Dallas (UTHSCD), now known as the UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas." What could very well have happened is that UT Health Dallas dual KL was on Sprint Telenet and also had Decwar. So yep UT, but Dallas not Austin, hahaha!:)
ReplyDelete1040 TOPS-10 University of T Health C Dallas, TX KL10B CPU1
1302 TOPS-10 University of T Health C, Dallas, TX KL10B CPU0