General Information

Serial #

C-101

Part Number

1

Total Parts

2

AKA

N/A

Patents

N/A

General Description

metal casing/ synthetic controls/ metal and synthetic working parts

Dimensions

Note: These reflect the general size for storage and are not necessarily representative of the object's true dimensions.

Length

50.5 cm

Width

48.5 cm

Height

26.5 cm

Thickness

N/A

Weight

N/A

Diameter

N/A

Volume

N/A

Lexicon

Group

Computing Technology

Category

Digital peripheral devices

Sub-Category

N/A

Manufacturer

AKA

Ampex

Country

United States of America

State/Province

California

City

Culver City

Context

Country

Canada

State/Province

Unknown

Period

early 1970s+

Canada

An American made drum memory unit apparently marketed by Canadian computer manufacturer Consolidated Computer Inc. (see Markings and Supp. Info.), possibly originally part of one of CCI's products. CCI was formed in 1967 to make and market the Key-Edit key-to-drum data entry computer [CSTM 1984.0769-1984.0771]. The original Key-Edit system utilized a Digital Equipment PDP-8 minicomputer to which drums (from Vermont Research Corp.) and other hardware were added. CCI was purchased by NABU Corp. in 1982 and ceased operation in 1984 (Ref. 2). The donor, Grant Bechthold (1938-2008) was an electronics technician who went on to get his PEng. From 1959-1984 he worked at the National Research Council of Canada. He was part of the Man and Machine Studies group in M-50, which won an Oscar. He worked with Ken Pulfer, Nestor Burtnyk and Dr. Marceli Wein on computer music, graphics & animation (made the first really good animation software). The software was used to make Hollywood movies. During his last 3 ½ - 4 years, he worked in Biology on their computer networks. He also worked with CBC musicians and with Spar on the Canadarm. Mr. Bechtold made the first mouse in Canada but it was cannibalized and so no longer exists. Dr. Ken Pulfer went to Xerox Park and saw such a device and GB made one with optical encoders. "In 1968 Ken Pulfer and Grant Bechthold at the National Research Council of Canada built a mouse out of wood patterned after Engelbart's and used it with a key-frame animation system to draw all the frames of a movie. " (Ref. 1)

Function

The data storage device or memory of a computer, in which instructions and data are stored magnetically.

Technical

An example of a memory device of the early 1970s, with a 4 K memory with 24 bit words (most were 4 or 8 bits at that time) with 2 parity characters (i.e. + or - ). It was used with a SEL 840 computer that had been made in Florida. This was the first medium sized computer (late 1960s). SEL = Systems Engineering Laboratories, Inc. The manual (dated Feb., 17 1966) for this machine is at: www.bitsavers.org/pdf/sel/840/SEL840_Technical_Proposal_Feb66.pdf (see Ref. 3)

Area Notes

Unknown

Details

Markings

white lettering on grey label on casing front reads 'AMPEX RF-2/ MEMORY'/ label on back reads 'AMPEX/ CULVER CITY CALIFORNIA/ MODEL RF 2 4KX26/ ASSY NO. 3227288-01 A/ SER. NO. C-101/ MADE IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA'/ label on back reads 'AMPEX/ CULVER CITY CALIFORNIA/ MODEL 322780001 E/ SER. NO. C-121/ VOLTS 115'/ handwriting on piece of masking tape on top reads '777-91 11'

Missing

unknown

Finish

metallic casing/ black, green and red synthetic controls/ plated parts/ grey cables

Decoration

N/A