Talk:Technology Square

9th floor map

Noel, we're interested in hearing your comments about the floor plan. Larsbrinkhoff (talk) And you already gave some, thanks!

I wasn't there during the CTSS/Multics era, but later on there was still a huge I-beam running along the floor where '1401/DM PDP-6' is on this map, and I was told that that had been installed to hold the Multics (or CTSS, I forget which) tape drives (or maybe drum). So it may have been all through that end. It shouldn't be hard to find out.

Also, LISP machines were scattered all over the floor; the prototype CADR, along with the CONS machine and the chess machine (CHEOPS) was in one of 904-906 (I forget which); others were down near AI. Jnc (talk) 22:01, 25 January 2018 (CET)

Where did the four KS10 machines go? Larsbrinkhoff (talk)

Where the ML KA used to be.

Speaking of the KS10's, I wish I could find a copy of the letter I wrote for Dave Clark to sign, asking for the donation from DEC. I looked on the MIT-CSR machine (whose filesystem I recently recovered), but alas, not there. It must have been on one of the other machines (XX, or one of the ITS's). Jnc (talk) 15:11, 26 January 2018 (CET)

I see various references in mailing list archives, but not specifially that letter. I believe there were two rounds of deliveries? First one KS10 replacement for AI in 1984, and then three more in 1985; does that seem right? Larsbrinkhoff (talk)

JNC Aug 1985. "I have organised a campaign to get DEC to give MIT several more of the little critters. A letter was written asking for a donation of several of the machines to MIT (i.e. both LCS and AI); due to the time pressures involved (all of the remaining unsold KS's were about to be scrapped) I couldn't get a lot of big wheels to sign, but Dave Clark did agree to sign the letter and lend his name to the campaign."

JTW May 1984: "It would appear that I am the slightly surprised recipient of one KS10-AA PDP10 CPU, with 512K MOS memory, 32 TTY lines, and a small DEC disk of some flavor. This object will be arriving in late May or early June."

Yeah, I think that's right. I had thought all 4 arrived together, but clearly they didn't. The 3 makes sense also because I had wanted to call them Huey, Duey and Looey (after the droids in Silent Running, which I quite liked). Jnc (talk) 16:07, 26 January 2018 (CET)

When the KA10 AI was removed: "The place where AI used to be is now filled with Vaxen and 3600s." Larsbrinkhoff (talk)

Well, I'm pretty sure OZ was along the outer wall there, in the space between 923 (which stayed for a long time, although maybe eventually it was diked - my memory is dim on that) and the corner of the building. Although the AI -6 was not along the wall, but further out, with the AI KA between it and the wall. Jnc (talk) 16:03, 26 January 2018 (CET)

Supposedly there was a gold brick road painted on the floor, leading up to OZ. Larsbrinkhoff (talk) 13:31, 19 January 2022 (CET)

I don't recall that; but I did help to paint a 'green line' on the tiles, to mark the AI/LCS boundary; the name comes from the one in Beirut. It wasn't serious; more of a 'hack' (practical joke, in MITese). Jnc (talk) 12:25, 14 March 2023 (CET)

Speaking of VAXen, around the time the MC KL went, LCS got a farm of VAX-11/750's, which lived either in that area, and around the corner a bit (to where the DM -6 and KA used to be); again, I don't recall the exact layout, alas. But it was in that general area. Jnc (talk) 16:03, 26 January 2018 (CET)

ABC 1973 documentary

I selected some interesting stills here:
https://github.com/PDP-10/its/issues/425#issuecomment-1456437794

Sign

I snarfed this off a video, but I found it hard to include it gracefully in the article.

Name

Isn't the proper name "Technology Square 545"? Larsbrinkhoff (talk) 12:47, 16 June 2023 (CEST)

No, it's a street/mailing address, so the number always comes before the name (as on the sign). (Unlike on a computer model! :-) Jnc (talk) 13:01, 16 June 2023 (CEST)

9th floor today?

This looks no fun. https://sienaconstruction.com/project/confidential-client-2/ https://sienaconstruction.com/project/confidential-client-2/moderna-9th-floor-1/ By the way, don't put the name of your confidential client in the URL. Larsbrinkhoff (talk) 14:53, 9 February 2024 (CET)

Location of ITS KS10 machines?

These photos of the KS10 AI, ML, MD, and MC appeared:

https://github.com/larsbrinkhoff/its-archives/blob/master/photos/setala-5.jpg
https://github.com/larsbrinkhoff/its-archives/blob/master/photos/setala-1.jpg

Noel, do you know where on the 9th floor they were located? Larsbrinkhoff (talk) 13:37, 12 November 2024 (CET)

I'm not absolutely positive those are the ITS KS's. But I don't remember them well enough to be certain. But there are some things that make me suspicious; e.g. in the picture that shows two RP06's between two KS's, there seems to be a window at the end of the row (see the shades?). That would have been impossible at Tech Sq; the KS's were in a row parallel to the Tech Sq exterior wall. So, at the 'far end' of the group, if this is a picture of the Tech Sq KS's, that wall would have been the wall to MOON's office (925, or possibly 926 - I don't remember the number definitely), so it couldn't have had an exterior window; this picture shows that wall.

MOON's office was 926, per this image.

The machines were definitely mostly where ML-KA10 had been; although I have a vague memory that either the DM-KS10 or the MC-KS10 was where the end of DM-KA10 closest to ML-KA10 had been. That is, the KS's were all in a contiguous group, mostly where ML-KA10 had been, but with a little overflow further up. The picture above shows the space where they were.

I guess I should do a plan of the 9th floor machine area in the MC era (from the XGP, around through where MC was); that hacked map is really somewhat inaccurate, when it comes to that era. (I see the captions of Brou's pictures have been updated at the CHM - did you point them at my annotated list?) Jnc (talk) 17:22, 12 November 2024 (CET)

I'm not sure either, but I'll offer this circumstantial evidence for your consideration:

* Penny's map of the four KS10s, showing a "mostly linear" arrangement, but with MX(=MC) on the side:

https://github.com/larsbrinkhoff/its-archives/blob/3018fbcffc1d2333d32aa254f3e62b75db417200/email/ks-its.mail1#L5076-L5079

* People remember that AI had a punched card taped to it; in the photo we can see something that could be that.

* AI has two old panels on top, which we believe to be Alan Bawden's mementos from AIKA.

* The owner of the photos was an ITS tourist in the 80s, so presumably he would have been interested in seeing the ITS machines. (Weak argument, I know.) Larsbrinkhoff (talk) 10:40, 13 November 2024

Penny's map shows the machines in a row, parallel to the long outer wall of 545 TS. (Thereby confirming my vague memory.) So maybe the image showing the bunch of machines in a row, with windows in the background, is the ITS KS's. The black box on the very left is probably the TU77. (Although I can't figure out why the LHDH would need a bay - maybe because it was not a board, but a rack unit - I have a vague memory that it was - I'll have to look through my stack of ACC manuals and find out.)

But that still leaves the other image, with the seeming window shades in the wall behind the end of the row - if that is a window, that was not possible at 545 TS, unless that mini-row was at right angles to the long wall.

The other thing that's strange about that image is the two RP06's in the row between the CPU's. That wasn't a common arrangement at MIT. Alas, her map doesn't show the disk drives, which IIRC were in the second row, in front of the machines - the usual MIT arrangement. (See the image of ML-KA; its drives are in the front row, too.)

However, if you look at the second image (the one of the bunch of machines in a row, with windows in the background), there are i) no drives in the back row, with the machines, and ii) you can see the corner of an RP06 in the foreground (with a disk pack cover on top of it) in the front row.

Also, since the first image shows two KS's, if the second image was taken at the same time, those two KS's would have to be the other two KS's. But there was one of the other ITS KS's which had an RM80 - and only the AI-KS had two RP06's (and we know its in the other image).

So I am increasingly thinking that that latter image is not of the ITS KS's. Jnc (talk) 16:32, 13 November 2024 (CET)

We do have an LHDH-11 page; I couldn't find it (which confused me, because I thought I had done one). It was a rack unit ("mounted within a single, rack-mounted unit", per the manual). Jnc (talk) 16:44, 13 November 2024 (CET)

A note giving some later history

Garrett Wollman wrote me a lengthy email message which pretty well covers the time between when personal computers (mostly workstations, at the stage) started to come in, and the two Labs' de-camping to the new building. He has been nice enough to let me post it here, as source data for anyone who wants to extend the coverage of the page, time-wise.

The history at the moment runs through about 1987; at the point, LCS were still mostly depending on time-sharing systems (VAXen running Unix), with some people having switched to IBM PCs; the AI Lab was using a mix of VAXen and LISP machines (but not yet one per person). Garrett's note starts in 1994. Jnc (talk) 22:19, 14 November 2024 (CET)