On Wednesday, February 10, 1993 at 3:02:57 PM UTC+1, Hugh J.E. Davies wrote:

In article 5519@cs.su.oz.au, linda@cs.su.oz.au (Linda Distributed Language) writes:

I have aquired a xerox computer of some sort. I have no idea what it does. >Here is a descpiption:

[description deleted]

I'm sitting in front of one of these. Except that mine works!

It's variously called a Xerox 6085 or 1186 workstation, depending on
what microcode is loaded. If it's running Dove microcode, it's called
a 6085 and runs Xerox Viewpoint (now called GlobalView) office automation software, and/or XDE (Xerox Development Environment). If it has LISP microcode loaded, it's called an 1186, and runs LISP.

BTW, the mouse is optical, but uses infra-red (I think - that or UV)
diodes, so you can't see the LEDs lit up. The row of icons you get at switchon tells the machine where to boot from - the spanners mean to boot with diagnostics. If you press the hard disk icon (F1) and it fails to
boot, you should get a display of four small numbers (called an MPU code,
for Maintenance Panel). What are they? This should tell you why the boot failed. If it's 7511, the file system is corrupt, and you need to run
a scavenge, which you unfortunately need to get from somewhere else, since
it isn't installed on the machine. If it hangs with an MP code of 0937,
it's trying to get the time from the Ethernet, and this will fail unless
it's plugged into an Ethernet with another machine running XNS time service.

You can't run anything vaguely industry standard on this machine - you'll need to approach Xerox for Viewpoint (they probably won't sell you XDE), or Envos in California for LISP. Both will probably cost you serious money. I doubt if there are enough of them in the world for there to be a serious hobbyist community to approach for software. Since you're an academic site, there *may* be a possibility of getting it looked at for free, but don't
hold your breath, especially since Xerox have stopped making 6085s, and now run this stuff on Suns, instead.

6085s (depending on configuration) sell for between US$500 and US$1000, in the States. I've never seen one for sale here, and I've no idea about Australia!

Any ideas? Particularly, does any body have any technical specs on the monitor,
or where I can get them? Or can tell me how to get into a setup mode, or has >a floppy for it or something?

Thanks in advance,
David Monro

---

Regards,

Hugh.
------------------------------------------------------------------
I don't speak for Xerox. | "It's no use being clever - we are all
Rank Xerox Centre, UK. | clever here; just try to be kind - a Huge.wgc1@rx.xerox.com | little kind." (F.J. Foakes Jackson)

Are any 1186's anywhere in existence ? If so I am interested???

--Ralph

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