Data General Desktop
Another new project has landed today – a Data General Desktop. Having had a quick look inside it appears to be a
10th December 2019
No Comments
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
DG AViiON AV5500
When I embarked on this hobby I made a pact with myself to stick to the ‘proprietary‘ Data General CPU’s e.g. the
3rd November 2019
No Comments
DG microNova I/O
One thing that has genuinely surprised me is how much ex Data General people want to help with physical items for a
9th October 2019
No Comments
Data General Microfiche
As well as the Pharaoh (Data General One) VIP John (USA) also very kindly gifted me a complete set of Data General
3rd September 2019
2 Comments
Data General One (Pepi II)
DHL delivered a very nice surprise to me today courtesy of VIP John (USA). John has very kindly entrusted me with his
5th August 2019
1 Comment
SCP FE Passwords
Both my MV/9800 and MV/9600 CPU’s have a Field Engineering (FE) SCP command which allow access to the Error Log for the
18th July 2019
No Comments
Data General MPT Schematics
I am pleased to report that I have managed to obtain a set of schematics for the MPT series Desktops. VIP Lothar
10th July 2019
No Comments
Crater en masse
I had a call a couple of days ago to say that the Data General 6220 5Mb Winchester Chassis was ready at the
5th June 2019
No Comments
Data General Dasher Emulator
I came across this Dasher emulator ‘DasherG’ which has been written by Stephen Merrony and is available on GitHub; https://github.com/SMerrony/DasherG I have switched
28th May 2019
No Comments
Creating a Standard (DB50)
When my Data General Eclipse MV9800 system, arrived I was rather excited to find a number of DG SCSI II controllers in
10th May 2019
No Comments
DG Part and Model Numbers
I have now published my sections on Data General Part Numbers and Model Numbers. This will be an ongoing task and will
16th March 2019
No Comments
Something Rather Rusty!
I found (via the classiccmp mailing list) an intriguing Data General item; intriguing because I have not seen a unit like this
13th March 2019
2 Comments
Power Supply (PSU) Checks
An important part of any restoration project is thoroughly checking the power supply unit (PSU) of the equipment you intend to restore.
15th February 2019
No Comments
Terminator?
Something that is new to me is the Data General Burst Multiplexor Channel (BMC) bus. When I used a Nova 3 and
6th February 2019
2 Comments
Data General MPT/100 Has Arrived
This Data General Enterprise MPT/100 has arrived for restoration and preservation – it’s a sweet little machine that has a microNOVA CPU
4th February 2019
2 Comments
Data General Preservation & Restoration
Welcome to my site which I intend to be a resource for anyone undertaking restoration on Data General systems.
15th January 2019
No Comments
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.