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What is this Periperal Device (Found in junk) Label Says "Convergent" NGeN Computer

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WallyB

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What is this Periperal Device (Found in junk) Label Says "Convergent" NGeN Computer

After my Dad passed away last year, I was going thru his junk in the Garage.

This computer looking box caught my interest since I am in the process of restoring a Commodore amiga/XT 8086 Computer.

The bottom Label Says CONVERGENT for use with NGEN COmputer. Appears to be a Expansion unit (Hard Drive, 5.25" floppy and Graphic).

I haven't opened it yet, but when I have time I will.

https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/308/32678954570_bfe5f065d6_b.jpg

https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/654/32926598502_f7b532bbdd_b.jpg
 
It appears to be an external drive system. I saw a couple for sale on eBay. Check the box for the manual?
 
Not just a drive system but rather a computer built around modules like sidecars. I see the picture shows floppy, hard disk, and graphics modules. The 80186 CPU would be in a similar brick module.

http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/2964/Convergent-Technologies-AWS-NGEN-Workstation/

Information (well, ads) are easier to find by searching for the Burroughs B25. Unfortunately, the two most substantial web pages for it focus solely on the keyboard.
 
krebizfan said:
Not just a drive system but rather a computer built around modules like sidecars.
Click to expand...

In the mid 1980s, I worked on some Unix based computers that were constructed the same way, you stacked the components vertically, and ran a ribbon cable bus down the side to connect them up. I don't remember the brand name, I seem to recall the plastic cases were a dark color. Those ribbon cable connectors were terrible, it was frequently the case that the thing wouldn't work when you got it cabled up. I never saw that brand again after I left the company I was working at at the time.
 
Hi,

I remember having seen this kind of computers in the starting of the 90's when I was at the army or may be even earlyer when I was doing summer jobs in banks - I guess it it was (re)branded as Bull in France as I remember the blue/green logo.

In my memory, there was plenty of modules laying around, I remind clairly the plastic lever, locking modules together… but Nothing else.

Regards - Hervé
 
Chuck(G) said:
You also saw the rebadged setup as the Burroughs B25.
Click to expand...

I wonder what ever happened to Convergent? I recall using a machine with one color graphics. It had a program called rats. The idea was to kill the rats and blowup the rat making machines before the rats got you. It would create a new maze for each game.
It was a 8086 based machine and had 2 or 4 Multibus slots. I made a motor control for an XY table to run on the bus.
Dwight
 
I had a couple of friends who worked for Convergent on the Workslate (something that's rarely mentioned in this forum). When the project was canceled, they went off to greener fields, long before the acquisition by Unisys.

I think one of the occasional posters here has a Mightyframe system. I don't know of many extant Megaframe ones.
 
Before Bob Supnik retired from Unisys, CHM worked out an agreement to release the NGEN system code.
We're still trying to find it. It was handed off to a support company in India, and disappeared without a trace.

CHM has several generations of the system, as do I.
Documentation and binaries for the system are on bitsavers under convergent

The 68000-based Unix systems aren't as common. AJ Palmgren's site is probably what you're thinking of
http://mightyframe.blogspot.com/
https://plus.google.com/108961112943172562491

The best known Convergent 68K is the AT&T 7300
 
hwarin said:
Hi,

I remember having seen this kind of computers in the starting of the 90's when I was at the army or may be even earlyer when I was doing summer jobs in banks - I guess it it was (re)branded as Bull in France as I remember the blue/green logo.

In my memory, there was plenty of modules laying around, I remind clairly the plastic lever, locking modules together… but Nothing else.

Regards - Hervé
Click to expand...

Bull Questar, to be exact.

I did grab a module one day, that included two memory cartridges. Haven't been able to find other parts since, unfortunately.
 
Yes, you're at it; it was called "Bull Questar" in France.

==> I remember the power bricks laying all around and the horizontal assembly…. and the CTOS name.

Hervé
 
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Al & Chuck(G)

Thanks to both of you for pointing WallyB to me in this thread. He has reached out to me by email, and we are planning on working out a way to save this piece of an NGEN System. It's true, my restoration work is bleeding over into those, which is a very interesting thing indeed. I hope to have examples of all of these vintage Convergent machines working again someday soon.

I'll post updates here as I'm able, and have anything to report, for any who might be interested.

Al Kossow said:
Before Bob Supnik retired from Unisys, CHM worked out an agreement to release the NGEN system code.
We're still trying to find it. It was handed off to a support company in India, and disappeared without a trace.

CHM has several generations of the system, as do I.
Documentation and binaries for the system are on bitsavers under convergent

The 68000-based Unix systems aren't as common. AJ Palmgren's site is probably what you're thinking of
http://mightyframe.blogspot.com/
https://plus.google.com/108961112943172562491

The best known Convergent 68K is the AT&T 7300
Click to expand...

Here are some related images of interest, just for nostalgia and context here...

NGEN System.jpg
Courtesy Jim Wheeler ‎Convergent Technologies Alumni Facebook Group Manager

17553520_10155164529089834_728955867743326998_n.jpg
Courtesy Bhaskar Prabhala, former Convergent employee

Thanks everyone!
AJ
 
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