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Litton Data Systems "Bill-1" 8008 computer

snuci

snuci

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Nov 22, 2012
Messages
1,551
Location
Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada
I recently acquired an 8008 based computer from the relative of someone who used to work at Litton Data Systems. According to the documentation, this computer was started in 1973 and has engineering changes up until 1976. The documentation is extensive but it centers around each individual board. I'd love to know if anyone here worked at Litton during this time frame to learn more about it.

It looks like this and appears to be an 8008 based military prototype:

8008 rack.jpg

Here's a link to a blog post with more photos and information: http://vintagecomputer.ca/the-bill-1-8008-based-computer/

Any information you may have is greatly appreciated. It also uses a rare Intel C8201 chip (on the CPU board) that appears to be a support chip for the 8008 that supposedly provides clock/interrupt control but I have not found a datasheet for it yet. I'd love to learn more about that if anyone knows of it.
 
Nice site. I've been there many times while trying to figure out what mine was by pictures (before I got the documentation).

I have scanned in some of my documentation but I haven't scanned the schematics because they are bigger than the scanner I have access to. While I have no trouble sharing anything I have access to to further the documented history of computers, I have hesitated in posting any of these documents because there are military projects mentioned and I really don't think I should be posting them publicly.

In terms of the link, I would welcome a link to my post.
 
I can't imagine after this much time it being classified, or even sensitive. I think it's much more important to preserve the history. The Eniac was incredibly more significant and sensitive, and schematics are published. Even the Apollo computer is well documented. If you need a way to get a large page scanned check with the guys at bitsavers. If money is an issue I'll gladly pitch in to cover the costs of scanning.

Len
 
8008guy, please PM me your email address and I'll send you the documents. Have a look and tell me what you think. As for the schematics, I work in higher education. We should have something I can scan the larger documents with somewhere around here.
 
I think you can do a decent job digitizing over-sized documents, like schematics with a modern hi-res digital camera mounted on a tripod. The key is lighting. I might suggest that indirect daylight would be an economical starting point.

regards,
Mike Willegal

snuci said:
8008guy, please PM me your email address and I'll send you the documents. Have a look and tell me what you think. As for the schematics, I work in higher education. We should have something I can scan the larger documents with somewhere around here.
Click to expand...
 
Thanks for the tip. We actually have a 3' x unlimited roll scanner at a different campus. I'll try to get to that campus soon. I'm just a little worried because these schematics are falling apart. Every time I open the book, I see paper fragments around it. I need to scan it quickly!

I did take a couple of pictures of the schematics and other docs that were oversized for 8008guy. I may do this before I get to the scanner as a precaution. I just wish I had a clear plastic sheet or window that I could put on top because of the folds.
 
After thinking about taking pictures of the schematics and how I would do it, it occurred to me this morning that I could take a large poster frame and sandwich the schematics and drawings within to take pictures. The schematics are fragile and, unfortunately, I couldn't take a picture overhead to make them square or you would see me.

The schematics and artwork for the boards are now posted in the page above.
 
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