From: Tim Bradshaw <tfb@cley.com>
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Date: Fri, 21 Jan 2000 16:44:34 +0000 (GMT)
To: rdkeys@unity.ncsu.edu
Cc: pups@minnie.cs.adfa.edu.au
Subject: Re: Anyone know what a Masscomp 5400 (54S-01) is?
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* rdkeys  wrote:
> On a surplus junket, today, I ran across a 2 dollar chassis that was
> listed as a Masscomp 5400 (54S-01) computer.  It looked rather like
> a DECish based thing with dual height cards, like some sort of laboratory
> digital aquisition machine.  On the long-shot that it is some sort of
> PDP-11ish thing, anyone have any recollection or pointers to any info
> on that kind of a Masscomp machine? 

Masscomps were 68k based machines, they had a whole bunch of stuff for
real-time and data-acquistion type stuff.  They ran something called
RTU -- real-time Unix -- which was a weirdo sysv / BSD hybrid, not fun
to use.  If the 5400 is the machine I remember it's a 68020 machine
but it may have a lot of cards for other stuff in.  If it *is* the
machine we had it was deeply unreliable.  Masscomp got bought by
someone else later on but I forget who, so they sometimes get badged
as some other make.

I would run away, fast.

--tim