[rescue] AT&T 3B2 revival

[Alan Hightower]

Forgive me not quoting a previous email as I just joined the list. I am
here to stay though. To disagree with Dave M. a bit, the 3B2 isn't very
well documented at all. Some of the original AT&T user documentation is
preserved on Al's site and a few others. However there is almost nothing
about the machine internals nor a comprehensive and verified software
archive. I've collected bits and peices of software over the years from
places like yahozna and some VCF personal collections. However I'd like
to see a shrine of knowledge somewhere eventually. It's a pretty
important machine in the UNIX timeline. 

Ed Eckert, the cheif archivest for Alcatel-Lucent claims much of the
original techincal documentation on the machine is in safe hands and not
in any danger of being lost. But he still considers it
proprietary,confidential, and not currently suitable for
reclassification for public release. He suggested I reach out to George
Kupczak at the AT&T Archives in Warren, NJ which I have not done yet. 

A long time collector in Brunswick, GA allowed me to purchase his
1000-80 recently for restoration and investigation. It has a blown power
supply which I am replacing with an newly made ATX PSU bridge board. I
normally would not consider that route, but the 600, 700, 1000 series
had an early hybrid switching+linear PSU. In the interrum, I feel safer
with a modern OC/OV limited ATX supply than the original until I can
fully root cause what went wrong and why. Once I get it running again
and SVR3.2 re-installed on a modern flash drive, I'll return to a few
project ideas for building up new CIO cards for the old girl. 

I'm interested in at least banding together a community and perhaps a
Google group or mailman list to start. 

-Alan