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CDC CE Disk 847-51

jdreesen

Experienced Member
Joined
Jul 5, 2012
Messages
414
Location
Switzerland
I have here a blue IBM-5440 type Cartridge, labeled CDC 847-51, "ce use only"
Strangely enough it has no sector slots, just one index slot.

What is it for, does anyone need it ? ( No CDC systems in house here, and I intend to keep it that way ! )

Jos
 
I have no idea if this is correct, but a search for "CDC 847-51" brought up exactly 1 match: CE 5MB Control Data Corporation CDC-847-51 Pack HARD Disk Cartridge.
 
"CE" means "customer engineer" and is someone, generally employed by the equipment manufacturer such as IBM, who visits customer sites to maintain and/or repair equipment if it is/was leased or if they had a maintenance agreement. If a third-party maintenance agreement was held, it was performed by the service company's CE. The majority of those visits by CEs usually were for "PM," or "preventative maintenance," on the equipment, rather than actual repairs.

From what I remember, the contents of the disk packs or disk cartridges marked as "CE use only" were highly variable depending upon the manufacturer or equipment. For PM or repairs to the disk drive or the whole system the CE pack/cartridge could contain diagnostic program that the CE used during this PM or repair. I remember our CE for our old IBM System/3 Model 10 Disk system mounting the black CE cartridge, clearly branded as an IBM cartridge, in the top 5444 disk drive whenever he ran diagnostics on our system.

From what I understand, some CE packs or cartridges had tracks and sectors with special data that were used in disk drive head alignment. Some CEs used an oscilloscope to make small head alignments with designated tracks on the pack or cartridge, although our 5444 drives apparently never needed this type of alignment. While I believe ANY disk pack or cartridge could have been used for head alignment procedures (someone correct me if I'm wrong here) the CE used a CE pack or cartridge to eliminate the chance of customer data destruction if something were to go wrong during the alignment, like a head crash.

It appears that this cartridge was not for IBM hardware. The only CDC drive that I know of that used the 5440-style cartridge was the Hawk drive. It could be that it was an alignment-only-use type cartridge for the Hawk drive, or it may have had diagnostic programs on it for use for the whole system it was connected to. I'm not sure on this.
 
I have here a blue IBM-5440 type Cartridge, labeled CDC 847-51, "ce use only"
Strangely enough it has no sector slots, just one index slot.

What is it for, does anyone need it ? ( No CDC systems in house here, and I intend to keep it that way ! )

Jos
We are restoring an old Centurion minicomputer with a CDC Hawk drive. Do you still have the CDC 847-51 disk? Hope the platter had not been crashed.
 
I still have it. It has never been in action with me, but I have no info on its previous life.
You did notice that I am located in Switzerland ? Shipping a delicate item like this across the pond.....

BTW nice machine, that Centurion !

BR Jos
 
If I pay the shipping costs what do you need for the CE Disk Pack? We are bring this system back to life for the enjoyment of us old timers and to help teach the young people and the history of computing. The young people working on the software and microcode for the AMD2091 bit slice ALUs seem to be having a good time. Have you watched all the videos? Regards.... Ken
 
I wonder if they still exist

I thought they went out of business
 
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