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At McMurdo Station, Antarctica the ~2000 line phone system still runs on a NEC PBX purchased second-hand in the 60s from a prison. A couple years ago a line car
by rexarex 8y ago
At McMurdo Station, Antarctica the ~2000 line phone system still runs on a NEC PBX purchased second-hand in the 60s from a prison. A couple years ago a line card broke and so a staff member was sent on a mission to go to a junkyard in Nebraska and harvest all the spare parts they could out of an old one.
They’re finally moving over to VOIP, but there was something romantic about this giant refrigerator sized behemoth, ready to break down at a moments notice. The battery backup system for it was homemade, about 24 car batteries in another room on a shelf, daisy chained together behind an inverted. Soon, it’ll be replaced with two pizza box sized servers.
- travbrack 8y agoI'm surprised you can find a mid century PBX in a junk yard, and that if you could the parts wouldn't be completely destroyed by the elements. Is there some kind of indoor tech junkyard somewhere?
- perplexes 8y agoRE-PC in Seattle is like an indoor tech junkyard.
- freedomben 8y agodang it, was just up there for kubecon and would have loved to visit such a place :-(
- kayfox 8y ago3R is too on some levels.
- tjohns 8y agoWeird Stuff in the Bay Area used to be exactly this. Until it closed down earlier this year, sadly. HSC is the equivalent for lower-level electronic parts. They’ll also be closing down in January.
- TheAceOfHearts 8y agoWhat is HSC? I missed out on ever getting a chance to visit Weird Stuff in the Bay Area and if there's other cool shops in the area I'd like to check em out before they close down!
- mcpherrinm 8y agohttps://www.halted.com/ https://www.halted.com/ https://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/05/technology/personaltech/05basics.html https://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/05/technology/personaltech/0... They've been around for a long time. Jobs and Woz apparently bought parts there for the original apple computers.
- adrianmonk 8y agoWell, the copious amounts of waste heat from the old PBX can be put to good use.
- Aloha 8y agoIf its really from the 60's its likely electromechanical, and uses almost no power at idle - like less than 1a at 48v
- zeofig 8y agoSo it's cooler, more reliable, AND bigger than modern computers? We need to go back.
- Aloha 8y agoNot really more reliable - they required regular servicing, Electromechanical phone switches did - contacts being cleaned, that sort of thing - Modern digital or IP stuff is largely turn it on and stuff it in a closet
- nightfly 8y agoExcept for security updates, software bug fixes, etc.
- bobthepanda 8y agoMiniaturization and flexibility come at a cost. Today's iPhone is more powerful than the computers used for the Apollo mission.
- darpa_escapee 8y agoA TI-89+ is more powerful than the computers used in the Apollo mission. > Miniaturization and flexibility come at a cost. Companies have little to no incentive to update software for older products unless there are lucrative support contracts. This has been the case for decades.