All of the machines and systems shown here are preserved in the depths of the "Computer Garage" and most are in operational condition! (many are used on a regular basis)
All images and video clips herein are Copyright ©
1996,1997,1998,1999,2000 James Willing
Permission is granted for reproduction for non-commercial use only with
inclusion of the above copyright notice. Any other use is prohibited without
written permission from the copyright owner.
Click on any picture to view/download a larger image (apx. 640x480)
Altair (MITS) Disk Drive
A two board controller set, hard-sector 8 inch diskettes, and noisy as
all get out! (a serious head load solenoid) But, it was mass (?) storage! All
240kb of it... And, the drive mechanism of the week! (note the difference in
the access doors on the drives)
By the way... the additional two switches seen on the front panel of the drive on the right are not standard items. They were added by our dear friends at Microsoft. There is a story behind that, but I'll keep that one for another day.
Let's just say for the moment that it also has something to do with me, Bill Gates, an evening telephone call, and a certain Altair 8800b that the good Mr. Gates had been showing off quite a bit in late 1996 thru most of 1997...
More on that later... B^}
Apple Disk II Floppy Disk Sub-System
Introduced: June 1978
![Apple Disk ][](P0135.JPG)
Single sided, single density drives based upon the Shugart SA-400 mechanism with Apple electronics installed. Storage capacity was 112kb or 140kb per drive depending on the firmware revision of the controller card.
Apple 'Duo-Disk' Floppy Disk Sub-System
Functionally identical to the original Apple II drives, this unit is based upon a different mechanism and was available in a single drive (Uni-Disk) configuration as well as the dual drive configuration shown here.
This unit also reflects the styling changes that started to appear in the later variants of the Apple ][ line. (smoother corners, more 'polished' overall appearance)
Apple Joystick (for //c or //e)
(details to follow...)
Apple Modem
(details to follow...)
Apple "Profile" Hard Disk
Introduced: September 1981
Price at Introduction: $3,499.00
The first official hard drive from Apple, 5mb storage capacity, and interface cards available for just about every model in the Apple line of microcomputers up until the time it was discontinued..
Commodore 'Datassette' Cassette Storage Drive
(details to follow...)
Commodore 1541 Disk Drive
(details to follow...)
Commodore 8050 Dual Disk Drive
Drive sub-system for the Commodore PET
(more details to follow...)
Digital DF108-RM Modem Bank
Rack mount modem bank with up to 8 modems in a unit. This example has six modems installed. Two are 9600bps units and the other four are 2400bps units.
Digital RA-81 Disk Drive
(details to follow...)
Digital RF-08 Fixed Head Disk Drive
(details to follow...)
Digital RK-05 Cartridge Disk Drive
(pictures details to follow...)
They are big, they are loud, they spin a 14 inch single disk platter... And they store 2.5Mb of data!
Digital RL02 Cartridge Hard Disk Drive
They don't store a whole lot (10mb) on a single 14 inch (!) platter, they are
not the fastest thing ever seen, and the fan sounds like a 747 winding up for
take-off, but if you need interchangability between systems, they are a
lot better than floppys! (and they will run nearly forever)
Digital RX-02 Floppy Disk Sub-System
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| Major Modules | Microprocessor Board (top) Analog/Driver Board (bottom) |
Drive Mechanisms (top - before, bottom - after cleaning) | Mechanisms remounted to chassis/power supply |
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| Analog board remounted | Drive 0 wiring (note alignment of connectors) | Drive 1 wiring | MicroProcessor board remounted |
(details to follow...)
Digital TK-25 Tape Drive
(picture and details to follow...)
Digital TK-50 Tape Drive
(picture and details to follow...)
96mb of data on a 1/2 inch tape in a little square cartridge. Not bad when you consider that the TS-05 drive shown below stored between 20mb and 60mb on 2400 feet of 1/2 inch tape on a 10 inch reel!
Digital TK-70 Tape Drive
Introduced: 19??
Price at Introduction: $??.00
The big brother (in capacity only, they are the same size) to the TK-50 drive shown above. This drive can pack 240mb on to the same size cartridge as used by the TK-50. It does require a different controller though...
Digital TS-05 Nine Track Tape Drive
(details to follow...)
Digital TU-10 Nine TrackTape Drive
This is a '9 track' upright tape drive, complete with vacuum columns. Big, noisy, but quite fast for its time... (and fun to watch!)
Digital TU-55 Tape Drive
Most commonly known as "DecTape". (controller not shown)
The predecesor of the drive shown below.
Each reel of 3/4 inch wide tape stored aproximately 250k of data in a block oriented format.
(more details to follow)
Digital TU-56 Tape Drive
Most commonly known as "DecTape". (controller not shown)
These devices were treated much like a disk device under most Dec operating systems and the contents of the tapes could be cataloged, updated, deleted, and in general treated just like any file living on a disk. It was not horribly unusual to see early system configurations that user the DecTape exclusively for storage. The system could be booted and fully operated with the DecTape units as the only mass storage device.
Each reel of 3/4 inch wide tape stored aproximately 250k of data in a block oriented format.
(more details to follow)
Digital TU-56 Tape Drive Controller
(more details to follow)
Digital TU-58 DECtape II Drive
(picture and details to follow...)
Yet another file oriented tape unit. Mini cartridges holding apx. 250kb of data, used for anything from loading microcode on the VAX-11/750, to booting an operating system on the VT-103.
Digital TU-60 DEC-Cassette Drive
Yes... even the big systems used cassette tapes at one time...
Digital TU-81+ Nine Track Tape Drive
Introduced: 19??
Price at Introduction: $?,???.00
(Details to follow)
Heathkit H-27 Disk Drive Sub-system for the H-11 Computer
Heath's answer to the more expensive Digital RX-01 floppy disk sub-system, the H-27 had a selector switch for either compatability with the Digital RX-01 drives, or a Heath 'Extended' format that increased storage capacity at the expense of compatability.
The Heath disk system also had one other major advantage over the Digital sub-system. The Heath drives could format blank diskettes! The Digital disk sub-systems (RX-01 and RX-02) could not...
IMSAI Dual Disk Drive Sub-System
Drive sub-system for the IMSAI 8080 microcomputer.
Fondly remembered as one of the featured props in the movie 'WarGames'. Why? While the lead character used his trusty IMSAI 8080 system to crack into game systems (or at least what he thought were game systems), the lack of indicator lights on the drive unit suggested that he never turned it on!
I don't recall the cardboard over the top of the drive mechanisms as being standard. I suspect the units previous owner did this to either reduce dust in the drives or in an attempt to improve cooling.
Also, on the lower row of images you may note the vertically mounted card near the right rear of the unit with the orange cables coming from it. This card is the 'Data Separator and PLO' (Phase Locked Loop) card. This circuitry was commonly found integrated on the disk controller card in later sub-systems, but many earlier units frequently installed them near the drives to reduce the cable lengths and improve reliability of the diskette system. (remember, this was very early in the game)
Kennedy Model 9610 Nine Track Tape Drive
Introduced: 19??
Price at Introduction: $?,???.00
(Details to follow)
'M' Model 3100 System clock
External rack mounted system clock for computer use with the classic orange 'Nixie' tube numerical displays.
North*Star 5.25 Floppy Drives
Orginally released as an inexpensive storage solution for the Altair/IMSAI systems, North*Star later went on to offer a complete line of computers and peripherals.
Novation 'Cat' Modem
(details to follow...)
Pennywhistle 103 Modem
A kit modem that originated (as did many units of its time) as a construction article in a popular electronic hobbiests magazine.
Tektronix 4924 External Cartridge Tape Drive
(detail to follow...)
Telebit Worldblazer Modem
(details to follow...)
Votrax 'Personal Speech System' (circa 1982)
A little beige box that talks! That pretty well sums it up.
Ok, a bit more than that, but fairly revolutionary for its time in regard to capability and ease of use. The follow-up to the Votrax 'Type N Talk' speech synthesizer, the PSS was based on the Zilog Z80 microprocessor and the Votrax speech synthesis chip and text to speech algorithms. Connected to a computer via RS-232 or parallel port you could generate speech by simply sending ASCII text to the unit.
And for those who tired of the electronic monotone of the text to speech algorithms, you could progress to adding inflection, tone, and speed controls to the text to add some variety to the speech, or for those who wanted real 'emotion' out of the unit you could also instruct the unit to accept phonemns which provided the most flexability in the speech control.
A little known fact of this unit is that it had coded into the text to speech firmware a list of 'naughty' words not too unlike George Carlin's 'Seven dirty words you can not say on TV'. If one of these forbidden words was sent to the unit, it would automatically substitute a similar sounding but more acceptable (i.e. 'clean') word to be spoken. I'll leave it up to your imagination as to just what the words were... (of course, if you know... we know what you have been doing with your computer!)
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