TI Explorer / NuMachine Prototype Boards

[tcolegrove]

Hey everyone. I found these boards at an estate here in Cambridge, MA near MIT. I believe that they're related to the development of the TI Explorer. One is a wire wrap prototype labeled "Algernon CPU". Another is in fair condition labeled "NuMachine" and has a ROM that I've dumped that contains text with prototype references. The last one is unlabeled but looks to be related as well. I'm intrigued by them but haven't had the time to do much further research and Lisp machines have never been of much interest to me personally. Anyways, I've listed them on Ebay in the hopes that someone might be interested in them (perhaps a museum?). Let me know if you know anything more!

 

[Chuck(G)]

I'm not so sure about the TI connection. The second photo shows an AM29100 bit-slice processor, which didn't come out until 1982.

 

[Al Kossow]

The Numachine was a joint project with Western Digital and MIT under Steve Ward.
TI bought the WD group developing it, and was where Nubus came from. George White
was the person who drove the IEEE standardization of the bus.
It was the basis of the TI 1500 which was used as the 68000 processor in the Explorer
I'm the software curator at the Computer History Musem and am sort of interested but
not at the prices you are expecting on eBay.

 

[tcolegrove]

Hi Al! I suggest you follow the auction anyways. It starts at a penny.

 

[Chuck(G)]

I shouldn't have spoken up--this is clearly something for Apple freaks.

 

[m_thompson]

George White was the person who drove the IEEE standardization of the bus.

I met George many times. My name should be in the front of the IEEE 1196 standard.