CASINO

CASINO — Computer Able to Select INternal Orders — was an early, one-of-a-kind computer built out of DEC System Modules by Scientific Engineering Institute (which later became Medidata; they were eventually bought by G.D. Searle & Co., and re-named Searle Medidata). It apparently used 36-bit words (from the width of the main memory known to have been used on it; below), but this is not certain. It seems to have been inspired by the never-produced PDP-3 - if it was not in fact built from the PDP-3 design.

There is one report that SEI initially used it "to process radar cross section data for the Lockheed A-12 reconnaissance aircraft in 1960", which seems to be accurate, but nothing else is known for certain. Whether it was used in the earlier reduced RCS work that SEI did for the U-2 in unknown. It is possible that it was also used for running theoretical models related to RCS work, but that is just a guess. The last use that CASINO was put to at SEI, before being retired ("the board testing function now being carried out on CASINO", below) was almost certainly a re-use of a machine they had laying around.

CASINO was also reported to have had graphics capabilities, at a time when that was very rare.

Mentions

A few brief references to CASINO remain:

From Gordon Bell's book Computer Engineering - A DEC View of Hardware Systems Design:

DEC also never built a PDP-3, although one was designed on paper as a 36-bit machine. [...] In 1960 a customer (Scientific Engineering Institute, Waltham, Massachusetts) built a PDP-3. It was later dismantled and given to M.I.T.: as of 1974, it was up and running in Oregon.

From a September 21, 1972 letter from Edward B. Rawson:

As you may have heard, we have been considering the question of what to do with our CASINO computer. The machine is nearing the end of its useful life. We have recently purchased a General Radio 1792 to supply the board testing function now being carried out on CASINO. I anticipate that within six to nine months we will have no further use for CASINO. [...]

The machine contains primarily 1000, 4000 and 6000 series systems units. Many of the 6000 series units have been modified or had selected transistors placed in them. In general, the modifications are minor. The units are, of course, largely in working order although unused portions of the units may have failed during the life of the machine without our noticing the failures. Most of the equipment racks are of the taper pin variety. However, in addition, there are perhaps twenty racks of the banana plug type. The relay racks are not standard DEC hardware; they were purchased from EMCOR.

In addition to the systems units and racks, the machine contains a couple of major components of DEC manufacture. One of these is a type 30 scope which may have been modified but probably not drastically. A second item is the basic 4K memory. This memory consists of two PDP-1 memories placed on top of one another to provide 38-bit words. The stacks and drivers could conceivably be quite useful to you. The entire stacked up memory array was manufactured by Digital Equipment in 1960. The bulk of the memory in the machine is a 16K Fabri-tek memory of 40-bit word length. I am presuming that this memory will be of no interest to DEC.

In addition to these items, there are several other peripherals which may or may not be of interest. These include three Potter tape transports, one of which has Potter electronics. The other two of these units contain SMI constructed read and write electronics. We have a couple of used but still useful Friden Flexowriters, some paper tape equipment which I am sure is not of interest to DEC, and a Cal-Comp plotter.

From a February 3, 1997 alt.sys.pdp10 message from Max ben-Aaron:

In the late 60's & early 70's I worked for a company (Medidata, later Searle Medidata) which started life as a not-for-profit spin-off from Lincoln Lab. (as I have heard), called American Science Institute. The chief engineer, Ed Rawson was a friend of Dec's Olsen and he managed to get hold of the modules used for the prototype PDP-2 which never reached the market. ASI used them to build their own machine (designed, I believe, by Chuck Corderman) which they called "Casino" and was sometimes jocularly referred to as a PDP-2 1/2. Casino was noteworthy for having, very early in the game, graphics capabilities. It also had some special terminals which had labels that cannot be repeated on this (family) newsgroup.

(His memory seems to have dropped a bit or two; Medidata was previously 'Scientific Engineering Institute', not "American Science Institute". Also, the modules he speaks of were almost certainly not PDP-2-specific modules, but just generic DEC System Modules (per the Rawson letter).)