[comp.sys.xerox] Anyone still use 1100s?

z@rocksanne.UUCP (Jim Ziobro) (05/15/88)

Just curious: does anyone still use Xerox 1100 machines?  I know my old
group dumped a couple for $100 per machine a couple years ago.  Those machines
orginally sold for $30k.  They even ran all your favorite Alto programs.  In
some sense they were pretty unique in that you could program them in BCPL,
Mesa, or InterLisp.  Though never at the same time...

//Z\\
z.henr801c@xerox.com

denber.wbst@Xerox.COM (05/16/88)

	"does anyone still use Xerox 1100 machines?"

Yes, in fact I have what I claim is the largest remaining collection of 1100's
(aka Dolphin or D0) in the world: two fully functional and three in various
stages of disrepair.

The 1100 really is a rather interesting machine.  You can run Smalltalk and
Cedar on it, as well as Lisp (Koto runs just fine), XDE (Mesa), and most Alto
programs (but not all, especially Clint Parker's Alto games).  The hardware
directly supports a color display (640 x 480, 4 bits/pixel) in parallel with the
17" b/w screen.  You can run both 3 meg. and 10 meg. Ethernet boads on it.  It
takes up to 2 meg. of memory and has an internal 29 meg. hard disk (the
controller will support two drives).  Also parallel and serial ports (Lisp only
supports the parallel port, but there's a parallel to serial converter you can
add).  It also uses the wonderful Alto keyboard that accepts the famous 5-key
keyset.  You can debug the hardware remotely via an Alto attached to the
parallel port.

Any other 1100's left?  After all, this dl *is* called info-*1100*.

			- Michel

SCHMIDT@SUMEX-AIM.STANFORD.EDU (Christopher Schmidt) (05/17/88)

	We still have one 1100 that we keep operational for debugging
dorado displays.  (Our dorados are in other buildings.)  It's not
generally powered up, though.
	I gave up using Koto and reverted to Intermezzo because the
color package didn't work in Koto on a dolphin.  (I vaguely remember that
Darrel Van Buer had some patches, though.)
	We paid about $69,000 for each of our dolphins.  Add some more
for dense memory, color, 10 Mbit ethernet boards...the last time I had
one on my personal desk (6 months ago) I figured it had about $100,000
into it!
	We could probably get 3 going if there were a cash prize.
	We turned the chassis of two preproduction models into
heavy-duty carts that they might continue to serve.  And there's a lot
of aluminum in the disk drives to recycle if you pull the non-aluminum
parts off...
--Christopher
-------

mist@sun1.ruf.uni-freiburg.dbp.de (Michael Stumpf) (05/18/88)

Hi Jim,
we still use Xerox 1100 machines! We are one of those less fortunate
research groups still using 1100 machines! We would be happy to
be in contact with someone selling those machines @ $100 or so.
Seriously! Maybe we would come to the States and just take them
away. You should know that we bought an 1108 2 years ago for
120 kDM ($80k!!!!). Good old Europe!
Even DayBreaks (1186) sell for $70k regularly - we managed to
get one for $25k at a very special rate!
With best regards,
Michael and friends

Herod.pasa@XEROX.COM (05/19/88)

I have the  largest collection.  Several fully operational and quite a few more
that are used for repairs.  We still, on occasion,  run around the country
fixing them for a few customers. 

Reggie 

DonStewart.PASA@XEROX.COM (05/19/88)

We have 5 fully functioning 1100s, one of which is used daily for mail.  We
regularly use an 1100 with an IFS to make map extractions for either Smalltalk
or Interlisp/Notecards data input from a converted World Data Base II file with
1 second resolution.