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Any Varian owners out there?

Chuck(G)

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Nowadays, I get to stare at a big hunk of iron with the name "Varian" on it. This brought to mind memories of the Varian 620 mini. Does anyone out there own and run that mini?
 
Nowadays, I get to stare at a big hunk of iron with the name "Varian" on it. This brought to mind memories of the Varian 620 mini. Does anyone out there own and run that mini?
Don't have one but back in 1974-75, I spent about 540 classroom hours on the 620i at NAS Oceana,Va. That particular version was a 4-bit unit and we studied it down to bit level. All of the mnemonics were completely different than the civilian version. So, how did you come about one in your collection?
 
There are a few 602s I know of in collector's hands
The problem is there is almost no surviving software for them
 
I worked on Varian equipment for almost 8 years. I even did some training in Henderson, NV. at the Varian training facility back in 2011. I dont have very much left from then. A few stickers, my mouse pad (on this computer Im using) and a retired Thyratron from a Varian Linear Accelerator (the Varian Brothers invented the Thyratron in the 1940's. Wasnt that thier claim to fame back then as it was magnitudes more powerful than the magnetron?).

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Varian Data was in SoCal, while much of the rest of the company was in Palo Alto. I believe that the thyraton is the vacuum-tube version of the SCR (e.g. 2050 and 2D21 tubes). Magnetron of course, generates microwaves.
 
Your right, I guess that wouldnt be a good comparison. I suppose it was another product it beat in the market.

The henderson facility was only made in the 1990s and its sole purpose was training and demos of new products for Hospital staff.
 
Nowadays, I get to stare at a big hunk of iron with the name "Varian" on it. This brought to mind memories of the Varian 620 mini. Does anyone out there own and run that mini?

The Large Scale Systems Museum in New Kensington, PA has a 620/L. I don't know if they have software.
 

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Thyratrons go back to the 1920s--they're certainly in my 1930s reference manuals. I believe that Russell and SIgurd Varian are credited with the invention of the klystron--used in most radar installations. Their parents were early "hippies" and joined the community in Halcyon, California--the boys spent part of their youth there.
 
The last thing I saw with a Varian logo on it was a 5 cavity klystron about 5 feet tall.
50kw UHF TV transmitter. (about 50 years ago)

joe
 
The Varian jug story gets a bit complicated; note that they acquired Eimac in 1965. Anyone who thinks that "Silicon Valley" got started with semiconductors should be aware that it really was the defense industry (and Stanford's excellent EE department) that really started it.
 
I love the different sillicon valley documentaries, most however start with Orchards became Fairchild semiconductor.
I can say all the older folks I met from Varian all got their start in the NAVY or in Semiconductors (or both).
 
Sperry.... Are they the same as Sperry Rail service or not related at all? Sperry made univac right? The only Sperry I know of now is related to Rail technology.
 
About the Varian 620i. The civilian version featured a 16-bit CPU, but our Navy model was a 4-bit "tailored" setup. The sole purpose of the Varian was to load Mylar exercise tapes for the AN/ALM-106B MATE (Modular Automatic Test Equipment) which ran a test simulator for the AN/ALQ-123 ECM unit. The MATE had an ASR TTY input/output and there was no video. You mentioned the thyratron tube. This test set used traveling wave tubes, backward wave oscillators, yig & yag circuits, etc., and was dealing primarily in the Ku band, This was early 70's technology and almost everything that wasn't vacuum tubes was TTL. I have no clue as to what or where the state-of-the-art concerning ECM is these days, but I'd almost surely bet it would make you head spin.
 
Sperry.... Are they the same as Sperry Rail service or not related at all? Sperry made univac right? The only Sperry I know of now is related to Rail technology.
Never heard of Sperry Rail. Sperry Rand, Yes. Sperry Univac Yes, since I worked there from 1981 to 2000. But in 1986 they got merged with Burroughs to become
Unisys.
 
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