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Looking for infö on the nixdorf 820

detourdog

New Member
Joined
Aug 26, 2014
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Hey All,

I have a mysterious computer that is a Nixdorf 820. I have looked around the web but find very little information regarding first hand experience with this computer. I have noticed that this forum's archives contains the most information in english regarding Nixdorf computers so I thought I would post a general shout out to see if anyone has information.

Thanks,

Ben
 
image.jpg


Sorry I thought anybody who encountered this thing would remember it. This picture gives some context clues.

Thanks,

Ben
 
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I flipped the image over but it didn't help me any. Pictures of each component taken closer would help identify the contents. Pictures of the back are also useful. The rightmost item is the teletype most often seen for Nixdorf 820 with the plastic clear port being for a tape drive of some kind. The tape drive is to the right of the printer*. The left most item has lots of cards so is likely to be a primary CPU. The middle thing might be a form of disk pack drive or punched card reader from the cover which has a hose heading up into it. Mind you, those are very hazy guesses and they might be completely different.

The German Wikipedia does have some details. Sorry, my German classes were not sufficient to attempt a full translation. The parts I could discern describe it as a 12-bit computer with keyboard, serial printer, tape drive, multiple ROMs, plus a small amount of wired core memory. Punch cards and paper tape are common accessories. Should be roughly comparable to the DEC PDP-8.

* What I am thinking as a clear plastic cover over a cassette drive is mounted in the same place as other pictures show a punched card hopper.
 
I flipped the image over but it didn't help me any. Pictures of each component taken closer would help identify the contents. Pictures of the back are also useful. The rightmost item is the teletype most often seen for Nixdorf 820 with the plastic clear port being for a tape drive of some kind. The tape drive is to the right of the printer*. The left most item has lots of cards so is likely to be a primary CPU. The middle thing might be a form of disk pack drive or punched card reader from the cover which has a hose heading up into it. Mind you, those are very hazy guesses and they might be completely different.

The German Wikipedia does have some details. Sorry, my German classes were not sufficient to attempt a full translation.

It is better then my German.

The parts I could discern describe it as a 12-bit computer with keyboard, serial printer, tape drive, multiple ROMs, plus a small amount of wired core memory. Punch cards and paper tape are common accessories. Should be roughly comparable to the DEC PDP-8.

* What I am thinking as a clear plastic cover over a cassette drive is mounted in the same place as other pictures show a punched card hopper.

It is definitely a disk drive, some where I have other platters that can be installed and removed.

here are more pictures.

I was hoping to find other Nixdorf owners:(

Thanks,
Ben
 

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You have the platters. Wow. And it looks like you have the cables needed to hook up the various pieces together. If you also have some form of bootstrap, a few repairs* and it might well be running again. That is like winning the vintage computer lottery.

I would suggest contacting the German museum which has a Nixdorf 820. They have an English language page so hopefully someone there can provide information in English, especially how to correctly cable it. http://www.technikum29.de/en/contact

* It is about 40 years old. Fuses may have blown, solder may have loosened in transit, possibly other problems.
 
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