Need a Ferranti Pegasus board in your life? Brit computing history could be yours for four figures

A piece of UK computing history is going on the auction block this month in the form of a plug-in package for a Ferranti Pegasus Computer. Readers of a certain age will remember the joy of feeding and retrieving punched paper tape from the looming bulk of machines like the Pegasus, while others may recall seeing one of the …

[Qarumba]

Dials, Switches, CRTs, Blinking Lights.

Them were the days. We flew to other planets on five year missions with just that technology.

[Wellyboot]

Re: Dials, Switches, CRTs, Blinking Lights.

And you could fix them accompanied by the lovely smell of hot tin.

[jake]

Re: Dials, Switches, CRTs, Blinking Lights.

Hot Tin-lead, you mean.

[Wellyboot]

On it own it's just scrap.

>>>Nunn also pointed out that Flints had been unable to find any examples coming up in auction in the last 15 years<<<

I doubt there have been any Austin-A35 seat brackets auctioned in the last 15 years either (excepting those connected to a mostly complete A35)

[imanidiot]

Re: On it own it's just scrap.

I was just going to point this out. That's really no indication of anything really. If these components are indeed common and regularly swapped at HAM-fests and swap meets then their lack of auctioning is really no surprise or indication or anything.

[hoofie]

Re: On it own it's just scrap.

Having been to a few HamFests, it's amazing the utter tat and junk people will try to flog off. Fair enough if it's something that's actually useful like test gear or microwave components [pre-amps, converters etc not things to heat pies in] but a lot of it is busted old tat.

[jake]

Re: On it own it's just scrap.

Your busted old tat might be just the part(s) I need to restore my DECmate II.

Oh, wait ...

[jake]

Re: On it own it's just scrap.

Given that there is a small, but enthusiastic group of folks building and racing Austin A35s, and that there is a large variety of aftermarket/upgrade parts built for them, I'd bet a virtual ElReg beer that someone has auctioned off an A35 seat bracket on ebay at least once in the last 15 years ...

Make mine a Kirkey ... I'll make my own brackets, thanks.

[fedoraman]

HHHHHHMMMMMMmmmmmmm.......

Switches it on....

"What is this great purpose for which I, Deep Thought, the second greatest computer in all of time and space, have been called into existence to perform?"

[David 132]

Re: HHHHHHMMMMMMmmmmmmm.......

“You pass the butter.”

[Anonymous Coward]

Very sad that the science museum one may not run again

I can see why, but it's like owning a vintage sports car and never driving it (which, of course, people also do).

[jake]

Re: Very sad that the science museum one may not run again

People who own garage queens are a blight on the auto enthusiast community. It was built to drive, you morons, so fucking drive it or sell it to someone who will!

A friend of mine has a Concourse-winning 1954 Mercedes 300SL that is on it's third restoration. He and his wife use it as a daily driver. The other folks in the 300SL club look down their noses at him. He just smiles sadly at the poor bastards as they push their toys onto their trailers as he drives by, on the way home.

[cat_mara]

Poor Ferranti...

They pretty much made the 80s microcomputer industry in the UK possible with their ULA technology, then bought a CIA front company in their attempt to expand into the US market. From ye Pffft of All Knowledge:

'Unknown to Ferranti, ISC's business primarily consisted of illegal arms sales started at the behest of various US clandestine organizations. On paper the company looked to be extremely profitable on sales of high-priced "above board" items, but these profits were essentially non-existent. With the sale to Ferranti all illegal sales ended immediately, leaving the company with no obvious cash flow... The financial and legal difficulties that resulted forced Ferranti into bankruptcy in December 1993.'

So much for that "special relationship".

[Anonymous Coward]

Something is worth what some other idiot is going to pay for it, good luck to him if he can find a sucker who will stump up silly cash for landfill. A fully working Enigma machine it is not.

[Kubla Cant]

Ferranti kit

Back in the 60s, my dad was Chief Engineer at Ferranti Semiconductor Division. He unwisely brought home a glossy book of amplifier circuit designs, and I badgered him to source components so we could build one.

My recollection is that the output was something like 25 Watt RMS per channel, which was considered quite powerful back then. The book also contained a design for a 100 W/channel power amplifier, but it wasn't really suitable for home use as it needed a 3-phase power supply.

[Dan 55]

Re: Ferranti kit

It wasn't called the CRM-114 was it?

[Stoneshop]

Ferranti amp

The book also contained a design for a 100 W/channel power amplifier, but it wasn't really suitable for home use as it needed a 3-phase power

Two questions:

- wasn't it actually a space heater that someone at Ferranti bolted an amp design to for some obscure reason?

- my hobby room does have a 3-phase power outlet, fused at 25A. Can you give me the title of this book (I take it it's pre-ISBN)?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Ferranti amp

Very jealous of your having 3 phase power in your hobby room!

The big advantage of using three phase for powering DC equipment is that it allows a huge reduction in the amount of PSU reservoir capacitance needed, though at the cost of a three phase mains transformer.

In the early days of semiconductors, sufficent smoothing capacitance was often skimped on, as it was so costly. Valve gear had used higher voltages and lower currents, hence less capacitance.

As a result, a lot of early semiconductor amps could not be driven hard without the output hitting the supply rails, where they found a nasty 100Hz (120Hz USA) ripple, with vile results.

This particularly affected rock'n'roll instrument amplifiers, especially guitars, where the sound of an overdriven valve amp was a key ingredient.

Power supply ripple had proportionally much less effect as pentodes have high output impedance. However, some claim to be able to hear the difference between recordings made in the US vs the UK on account of the different pitch of the interfering ripple. . . .

It's a sad and sorry spectacle though when you find an old rocker trying but failing to be as anally retentive as the typical "hifi" "connosieur".

[Anonymous Coward]

My-old-tv. . .

I love the smell of hot srbp in the morning,

it reminds me of. . . . my-old-tv. . .

[Nano nano]

red mainframes

My first "hands on" computer was a Ferranti Argus 700E, and a very nice box it was too, with 10MB hard drive and 64k words of 16 bit core memory.

Managed to get BCPL/OCODE running on it, just, too !

[Dave 32]

IBM 704

Wow, those prices are rather incredible. I think I paid about US$10 for the two modules I have out of an IBM 704 computer, from the 1950s (And, no, I don't want to sell them.).

P.S. I'll get my coat. It's the one with the IBM-logoed vacuum tubes in the pocket.

[redbarnman]

What science museum

I don't think we have a London Science Museum any more. It's a collection of cafe's, childrens play areas and reception booths selling tickets to some 'special event' and a psuedo science shop selling tat. Sad really, going to the museum alone used to be a special event. You used to be blown away with technology in action when you entered the museum now its entrance hall is a drab and lifeless area full of groups of people where there used to be groups of exhibits to try out. All those lovely exhibits put in store to 'preserve' them and make them invisible to curious minds.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: What science museum

It's been a few years since I've been. IIRC, after going through the "trendy science" kid's area, I went through a door (towards the back???) and ended up in an area full of planes - and the proper museum.

I did have a bit of a giggle at the computer section. There was a set of floppy disk drives - the previous week we had received an identical set which my colleague had to repair!

[Aristotles slow and dimwitted horse]

"Preservation"

"All those lovely exhibits put in store to 'preserve' them and make them invisible to curious minds."

I often wonder at the point of this "preservation" myself. A lot of doing of it, but no real justification as to why...

[Kubla Cant]

Re: What science museum

I have to confess that whenever I went to the Science Museum as a kid I was most interested in the glass cases that had a button to press or a handle to turn.

[Vincent Ballard]

Re: What science museum

I went a few weeks ago with my brother and 3-year-old nephew. I was disappointed not to see some of the hands-on experiments I remember from when I was a child, but there was still some interesting stuff. My nephew's favourite exhibit was a couple of preserved transgenic mice. Mine was the working replica of Babbage's difference engine.

[wayward4now]

Jobs did what??

Sorry, the Apple I was all Steve Wozniak. Jobs was busy taking LSD and ignoring his daughter. If it wasn't for The Woz, Jobs would have been barefoot selling term life to blue rinsed old ladies.