Returning in the New Year
Well, I can’t quite believe the last post on here was in 2021. Unfortunately life got in the way between then and
1st December 2023
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Welcome
Welcome to my Data General Corporation (DGC) Preservation and Restoration site. The aim of this site is to preserve and restore systems that were designed and built by Data General Corp and whilst doing so provide as much information on those systems, peripherals, software and documentation as possible. If you are considering scrapping or sending anything Data General (DG) related for disposal to a salvage or recycling facility please consider sending it for preservation instead. You can contact me here if you have any Data General Systems, Peripherals, Displays, Documents, Manuals, Cables, Terminals, Parts, Spares, Floppys or Tapes you wish to dispose of.
Data General Systems were used across the world – Not only were they sold directly to end users by Data General themselves but they were also embedded into many industrial, military and commercial systems by OEM’s. I cut my electronics teeth using Data General systems (read more in about section) and I have very fond memories of these systems which is why I recently decided to buy and restore my first system which happens to be an MV/9800 – one of the last 15″ form machines made by Data General.
The site is very much work in progress so check back often to see how the projects are progressing.
Latest News
Nova General Purpose Interface
Here we have a PCB (005-003568) that apart from interfacing to the Data General Nova bus does nothing else. Of course that’s
24th February 2021
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Spaghetti Western
This HUGE box of back plane to bulkhead cables has arrived from Maryland USA (which is west of me). I am pleased
20th January 2021
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Nova 1200 – Update 1
It was not my intention to start the restoration of the 1200 so soon after it arriving, but I stumbled upon someone
29th December 2020
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6012 Terminal s/n 1961
This Data General 6012 Terminal (Serial Number: 1961) was due to be my next acquisition to sit alongside my recently acquired Nova
26th November 2020
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Nova 1200
This Data General Nova 1200 has arrived from the California USA, its missing its CPU PCB and has some damage to the
10th November 2020
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6341-A Tape Streamer
This Data General 6341-A Tape Transport has arrived from the USA along with an interconnecting cable to a MV DC series machine.
13th October 2020
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Eclipse S/140
This Data General Eclipse S/140 Chassis has arrived, it will enable me to test my S/140 and Nova 4 CPUs and related
1st September 2020
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Breaking Out
Data General Field Engineering Breakout Box Another blast from the past – anyone remember FE days fault finding ASYNC connectivity?
24th July 2020
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DG DTOS way back when……..
Data General DTOS 8.1 on cassette. Here is a blast from the past – anyone remember loading DTOS from cassette tape? This
29th June 2020
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Data General Corp VLSI Ident
This Data General Corporation Integrated Circuit is used on an Intelligent Lan Controller (ILC) board which came with my Eclipse MV/9800 the
27th May 2020
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Reaching Out
With lock-down in place here in the UK restoration work has stalled as systems are either at my place of work or
25th April 2020
2 Comments
Voyage en France
A recent day trip to France has returned (for restoration and preservation) and following items: Data General MV2000DC Mk 1 Data General
9th March 2020
4 Comments
DG AViiON Software Part 2
More AViiON related media arrived this morning including: AViiON SCM Update Media Rev 17.00 Prom 4.4.0 (CD)AViiON ix86 In-Service Diagnostics Rev 8.0
25th February 2020
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DG MPT/100 – Update 1
I have finally found the time to start work on the restoration of the MPT/100. I have removed the Main PCB and
2nd February 2020
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DG One Floppys
Brian contacted me recently after stumbling across my site. His father (Roland Quillia) was with DG for over 20 years (70’s –
2nd February 2020
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DG AViiON Software
Suprise delivery this week from the guy I acquired the AViiON 5500 from, he found a keyboard, some further documentation and two
4th January 2020
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The Shed
Having had another batch of Data General PCB’s delivered today I thought it best to start to take stock of what I
3rd January 2020
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Recent Visitor Comments
- Paul Birkel Nova 1200 - Jurgen: If you’re still looking for someone to take over parts of your collection, and in particular to get documentation…
- Nova 1200 - Hi, I am Marcel. I have developed a Teensy controlled from panel for my Nova 1210. Useful for repairs or…
- MPT/100 microNOVA - If one does not have the knowledge handle a CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) all one has to do is find…
- Nova General Purpose Interface - There was an I/O Board with Cassette option.. Thank You Marty
- Data General One (Pepi II) - I have a very similar experience of being gifted a Pharaoh by an ex-DG field engineer. Mine has an intact…
- Nova General Purpose Interface - Looking forward to it!
- DG/10 Desktop - They are very different to the x86 PC. I do see them occasionally on eBay.
Data General (DG) History
Data General Corporation (DGC) was founded by several engineers from Digital Equipment Corporation who were frustrated with DEC’s management and left to form their own company. The chief founders were Edson de Castro, Henry Burkhardt III, and Richard Sogge of Digital Equipment (DEC), and Herbert Richman of Fairchild Semiconductor. The company was founded in Hudson, Massachusetts in 1968.
Edson de Castro was the chief engineer in charge of the PDP-8, DEC’s line of inexpensive computers that created the minicomputer market. It was designed specifically to be used in laboratory equipment settings; as the technology improved, it was reduced in size to fit into a 19-inch rack. Many PDP-8s still operated decades later. De Castro, convinced he could do one better, began work on his new 16-bit design.The result was released in 1969 as the Nova.
To read more visit the Wikipedia page (where the above text was found). The Wikipedia page for Data General can be found here.
Data General Advertising:
Data General Systems manufactured between 1969 and 1999:
Nova, SuperNova, Nova 1200, Nova 800, Nova 840, Nova 2, Nova 3, microNOVA, Nova 4, Eclipse S140, Eclipse S100, Eclipse S200, Eclipse C300 Eclipse S230 Eclipse C330, Eclipse S130, Eclipse S250, Eclipse C350, Eclipse C150, Eclipse S130, Eclipse M600, Eclipse S/20 (microECLIPSE), Eclipse CS20, Eclipse CS40, Eclipse CS60, Eclipse S120, Eclipse S280, Eclipse C380, Eclipse DG500, Eclipse MV/8000 (Eagle), Eclipse MV/6000, Eclipse MV/4000, Eclipse MV/10000, Eclipse MV/2000, Eclipse MV/7500, Eclipse MV/2500, Eclipse MV/20000, Eclipse MV/7800, Eclipse MV/15000, Eclipse MV/40000, Eclipse MV/1000, Eclipse MV/1800, Eclipse MV/3000, Eclipse MV/5000, Eclipse MV/30000, Eclipse MV9600, Eclipse MV/60000, Eclipse MV9800, Clariion Disk subsystems and Motorola and Intel based Aviion systems before being sold to EMC in 1999.
These systems ran various operating systems, high level languages and applications including:
DOS, RTOS, RDOS, DTOS, DG/DOS, MP/OS, AOS, AOS/VS, AOS/VS II, MV/UX, DG/UX, XODIAC, TCP/IP, FORTRAN IV, FORTRAN V, FORTRAN 77, COBOL, INTERACTIVE COBOL, BUSINESS BASIC, EXTENDED BASIC, MP/BASIC, MP/PASCAL, SP/PASCAL, DG/L, RPG II, PL/I, DG/DBMS, DG/SQL and CEO.
datageneral.uk
This site was created to help preserve the history of Data General Systems by acquiring (thru salvage, gifting, purchasing or trading) and restoring those systems. In doing so we can hopefully create an informative reference for each item that we acquire for future reference, from complete systems, peripherals, PCB’s, spares all the way down to the cables used to connect items together.
We are based in Oxfordshire, United Kingdom and are able to advise of the best course of action should you have a Data General System or associated equipment or software that requires disposal. We can also advise on and provide data destruction on those systems whilst retaining (where possible) the physical hardware for preservation. We can also (where required) physically remove disk storage for destruction or provide data destruction certificates. Please use the Contact page in the menu above or click HERE.
This site (datageneral.uk) is unrelated to any entity who may have previously or currently owns any Data General Trademark or Copyright. The information on this site is made available for enthusiasts use only.