EEVblog Electronics Community Forum
Products => Test Equipment => Topic started by: oz2cpu on September 26, 2024, 06:56:52 am
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here is my Nicolet Instrument corporation instrument is called 1170 on the front,
model 1174 on the back, plug in module model 171/4 four input signal digitizer,
42cm wide, 32cm height, 64 cm deep including heatsink and knobs, it uses 200 watts, weight 35 kg !!
20 x 2114 ram chips = 10kbytes, 5 x 2901 CPU / ALU chips with their own micro code run its simple software,
serial out done using shift registers and byte to chars converters, all in all a super fun instrument to play with,
this maybe also explain the length of the video. Nicolet corp is from madison wisconsin usa, the year 1978 is written on all circuit boards.
you see it is also full of wirewrap, i think this reveal either prototype, or very low volume, or they are all adjusted to each customers special needs,
anyone know more about this unit ? have seen one ?
https://youtu.be/2JooC7lhuiY
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Wire wrap was sometimes still used for low volume production units. I have seen an old calculator with a "backplane" done with wire wrap. A really nasty example I have seen was a Cray super computer with a huge pile (~ 10 cm thick from memory) of wire wrap, with all the same color :phew:
Some parts look to complex to easy make a 2 layer PCB for this.
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In the mid 70s, the Modcomp4 computer was completely wirewrap. TTL, naturally, but not one of the faster/later variants since the wirewrap pins acted as stubs.
CNC control of wirewrap guns was normal, to reduce the error rate.
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Would be great to see it working..
The board cpu made of 2901 slices - that o'scope cost you an arm and a leg in '78, my bet..
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As I commented on the video, Data General microNOVA mini computers from the 70's also had some wire wrapping on their back planes. Although I don't think it was to the same extent as that Nicolet.
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thanks a lot for all your comments,
i think most of the most important comments was added to the YT
that is most uptimal for the future since people will be able to find it at that location,