old-computers.com/website
1
0
Fork 0
Code Issues Pull Requests Actions Packages Projects Releases Wiki Activity

All machines linked to their forum thread (full comment import)

Browse Source 
1,289 discussions, 9,527 archived comments; pages no longer carry the comments themselves.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01YDRjtmAiNpo5mK5N3d7QwZ
This commit is contained in:
yann64
2026-10-13 17:26:43 +02:00
co-authored by Claude Opus 5.5
parent 055c3924f2
commit b274874139
1284 changed files with 1284 additions and 42835 deletions
Download Patch File Download Diff File Expand all files Collapse all files
content/museum/rair-microcomputer-black-box.md
+1 -180
View File
@@ -69,6 +69,7 @@ params:
value: '64kb RAM and 2 x serial ports : 6097 (France, july 82)'
tabs:
- adverts
forum_thread: 449
adverts:
- title: FRENCH ADVERT (JAN. 1982)
subtitle: ''
@@ -78,186 +79,6 @@ params:
subtitle: ''
text: ''
image: /media/museum/pubs/rair_blackbox_pub_1.jpg
comments:
- author: Guenter H Krauss (Germany)
date: Thursday 7th April 2011
text: I stumbled over this. The old days. We should probably plan an old get together with the crew. I see John and Tim commenting. What happened to Howard, Mark and Dave Fogden and the others? I have still lots of photos. Still a roll of poster from our hot-air balloon. What happened to "Technology For Business" after the bought us up. I remember they weren''t very happy about my balloon at the time. Is there a place we upload photos?
- author: $#/\wN (essex UK)
date: Thursday 2nd August 2007
text: |-
Thanks John\
that was a sad time.\
Richard was my best friend then and still is.\
I have a lot of his stuff still in my loft, photos taken at rair and I think the first talking computer he was Woking on at the time. If I remember correctly he was in a race to beat the US in getting a chip to talk, something like that anyhow, I know little about this tech stuff.\
anybody know what happened to Richards home videos ?
- author: John Pettitt (California)
date: Monday 5th March 2007
text: I never met Rick - if I recall correctly he died the same week I started working for Lifeboat Associates (we shared offices with RAIR) - Tim may remember him.
- author: $#/\wN (essex UK)
date: Monday 5th March 2007
text: |-
Any of you Rair aware guys remember Richard Boustard at Rair until about 1981 ?\
would be nice to hear from you.\
Shawn.
- author: John Pettitt (California)
date: Saturday 11th December 2004
text: The parts the the OS that Tim didn't write were written by me (hi Tim).
- author: Tim Hill (California)
date: Sunday 14th July 2002
text: I wrote most of the OS customization code for this unit, and supervised most of the hardware design. In fact, it was an 8085, not Z80, based design, though later units used an 80286 or a dual 8086/8085 CPU board. The photo shows an early unit with one of the first Seagate ST506 drives ever produced, and a custom HD controller designed for RAIR by Xebec (later units used early Adaptec controllers).
- author: Dominic Turner (Bristol, UK)
date: Friday 26th May 2006
text: |-
My father had one of these in the late 1970's - he set up a company called Computer Credit Control and this beast automated the process of taking late payers to court. Unfortunately the business model was flawed and it became a case of the "doctor that cured the patient" - pretty soon word got round that certain firms were using computers to chase creditors and the business dried up. I believe that the program was written by a guy called Tom Potts.
I grew up with the Rair black box in the house, a terminal (that was a really spacey-looking combined keyboard and screen) and a monster daisy wheel printer (that for some reason also had a keyboard). In those days everybody assumed that the form letters it generated were typed by hand!! The noise of the printer was truly awesome - like something from a coal mine and it ate acres of pre-punched paper - headed paper was gummed to this and fed through. I remember when my dad upgraded to Winchester double density disks - he was over the moon about this quantuum leap in storage!
My favorite programs (I think I was about 5 yrs old) were Gomuku (a sort of noughts and crosses) and a program that generated "poetry". My lasting memory was that it cheated at Gomuku and always won!
My father was brain damaged in 1982 as a result of a hit and run accident on his push bike and subsequently never worked again.\
I believe my mother has the RAIR Black Box somewhere though it hasn't been turned on since then. I myself have kept up the family tradition and have been programming ever since (though never on CP/M).
- author: Joel Abramson (England)
date: Wednesday 17th February 2021
text: I remember Graham Nash. I worked in sales $ then support
- author: Joel Abramson (England)
date: Wednesday 17th February 2021
text: I remember Graham Nash. I worked in sales $ then support
- author: Gary Evans (Bromley, Kent, England)
date: Thursday 16th July 2020
text: I worked at TF/RAIR from September 1987 to March 1988 when I had a serious accident playing rugby, which left me paralysed. The company really looked after me and my direct boss Jim Prendergast supported me immensely after my accident. Would love to catch up with anyone who remembers me.
- author: kevin.elkins (UK)
date: Wednesday 22nd April 2020
text: |-
The PC were rebranded as ICL PC which were further rebranded by BT as M2200 series and from what I can remember ran CP/M and MP/M operating system and we my first encounter with a HDD\
I worked for BT Business System Support Unit from 1986 to 1988 and serviced these the M3300, M4000 (Logica kennet) and M5000 range (Bull)\
I think I might still have one in my loft that I rescued from a skip outside EMA textiles in London.I can''t remember the accounts pack it ran but it did have Word Star word processor software on it
- author: Howard Sayles (United Kingdom)
date: Friday 28th February 2020
text: Hi everybody. I stumbled across this during a bored moment at my 2nd home in Tel Aviv. I''m retired now and split my time between here and London. Its great just to see the names from my youth. Much nostalgia and too many memories to list them all here. Good luck to you all.
- author: Phil harris . philipharris160iq@gmail.com
date: Thursday 17th October 2019
text: P.s. see other recent message.....is it true about dave f ? I know he had the neatest smallest hand writing ever...the other bit of news that he is not with us any more...phil h.
- author: Phil harris . philipharris160iq@gmail.com (Uk)
date: Thursday 17th October 2019
text: Those where the days 81 to 85 . I left twice and went to altos mark got me back. Left again came back again .. if only we had dos as well as cpm mpm still it was a fun good money time. Kept in touch with roger chalke for a long time jp on and off during 80s and nineties and mark plus nashER and howard during tfb days when I was at uniplex. These days I have a great idea for text/netlingo branding for large choosen corporates ....big dosh if it works. Send me an email and tel no and I will call my mbl is +44 7852 912568 .......you know who U R . BEST REGARDS TO ALL R.A.I.R people....ps cant call abroad cheaply
- author: shawn (uk london)
date: Wednesday 9th October 2019
text: |-
I got a few old polaroids of rair people, if any bod want copy''s, leave a contact here or something.\
I will look back here some time when :-)
- author: Graham Nash (Bedfordshire, England)
date: Monday 12th August 2019
text: |-
Hi all,\
Wow, I am reading all these posts and many fantastic memories are flooding back of the time I had with Rair Ltd from 1981 to 1989! I remember Mark, Howard and Dave as if yesterday. I was interviewed by Mark , who had been at NCR, where I had been for the last 10 years selling big stuff for tens of thousands of pounds and then he shows me this tiny black suitcase in the corner of the board room at Wellington House, Upper St.Martins Lane and says it can do so much more for £3,500. I was hooked and went on to sell thousands of 3/20, 3/30’s and 3/50’s. Then onto the Supermicro!\
Remember Tim, John Petit, the two Clares , Nial( with the campervan) , Tom Frazer,Phil, Richard Little, Bharat ,Camarl , Robert and the boys at the factory in Camden Town.\
Hope to hear from one of you again , am enjoying my retirement .\
Regards Graham Nash
- author: shawn (essex)
date: Sunday 29th July 2018
text: Still miss you dude x
- author: $$/$wN (essex)
date: Sunday 18th March 2018
text: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/263552051814?ssPageName$STRK:MESELX:IT$\_trksid$p3984.m1555.l2649
- author: Tim Hill (USA)
date: Thursday 2nd June 2016
text: Yes I remember Rick well, such nice guy, fun and smart, and such a tragedy .. we were all shocked that Monday morning I don''t think anyone even answered the phone all day. Sadly, Dave Fogden died about 5 years ago after a fight with cancer, I''ve lost touch with his family. Mark Potts is still in San Francisco, his son lives there also and is a full-time DJ, I see them from time to time.
- author: Bharat Ghayal (United States)
date: Tuesday 10th November 2015
text: I just finished reading all the posts and it brought back some really good memories. I worked at RAIR as field service engineer and had lot of fun travelling UK and Europe supporting and training for repair of the PC''s. Remember Rick, Mark, Tim, Howard, John, Dave, Claire and Guenter. It was very sad with what happened to Rick. I was at the Camden offices. The best memory was going to a coal mine to repair a Black Box (clogged fan filter!). Also Amsterdam in the diamond center. Thanks Mark for allowing us to share in the success and memories...
- author: Robert (Essex/UK)
date: Monday 11th May 2015
text: |-
Hi all,
I''m Rick''s younger brother. I stumbled across this page by accident and just wanted to say that it was so nice find that he has at least a small presence on the www.
I''m afraid I don''t know what happened to his videos. Our mother died a few years back and nothing of that nature was among her effects.
Still miss you, Rick
Robert
- author: Robert (Essex/UK)
date: Monday 11th May 2015
text: |-
Hi all,
I''m Rick''s younger brother. I stumbled across this page by accident and just wanted to say that it was so nice find that he has at least a small presence on the www.
I''m afraid I don''t know what happened to his videos. Our mother died a few years back and nothing of that nature was among her effects.
Still miss you, Rick
Robert
- author: Robert Fogden (Monaco)
date: Sunday 19th October 2014
text: Sorry, Claire
- author: Robert Fogden
date: Sunday 19th October 2014
text: Dave married Clare, a lovely girl who did happen to be the receptionist at Rair, went to their marriage in Paris
- author: Robert Fogden (Monaco)
date: Sunday 19th October 2014
text: |-
I''m one of Dave Fogdens younger brothers and wrote a number of applications in basic for the black box, including a debt collection application that did seem to produce a whole load of paper.
I worked out of the Neal Street office, where the PDP timeshare machines were.
They were also supporting the Wang word processors, and when that contract went away ( frauduantly as far as I knew, Wang salesman put everything in his name not Rairs and left with them), everything went bad. They, Dave and Mark went on to various things then Pervasic which was a mobile application platform where I also did some work with them and BT in their Leeds HQ, all ended in tears when Dave died. Nial worked there too. Mark did a runner back to SF owing a load of money to people.
- author: Steve (Norway)
date: Friday 30th May 2014
text: |-
I found this during a nostalgia hunt for another computer that I worked on in my past.
I was the first engineer hired by Rair to work on the Black Box. Before I started, Rick also handled the repairs himself.
I worked for Wren for about 1.5 years before moving on.\
But I remember Rick well, and it was so sad what happened, he was such a good guy, a work colleague and a friend. I do not fully understand what led to Ricks decision, but it was a terrible shock.\
I still think about Rick from time to time.
At the time I worked foe Rair, the computer was based on an 8085 and came with either 16/32/48 or 64k or RAM.
I remember modifying one of the floppy controller cards so that I could easily step the floppy drives in and out. At that time we actually used to fix alignment problems on disks using a special calibration disk and an oscilloscope.
I remember the first hard disk that was added, an 8" Winchester. It had a green tinted semi-transparent cover, so you see the actual workings (when the Black Box cover was not fitted), which was (I think from memory) 5Mb. It was in a separate case (same as the Black Box itself) and connected into the Black Box via a cable.
The power supply for the Black Box was really something else. It was designed by a guy (Ian/John Nulty or McNulty I think? not 100$ sure that I remember the name correctly) who had previously designed power systems for satellites.\
It was a switched mode power supply based on the Ferranti ZN1066 chip and was extremely reliable (probably a little over-engineered for the purpose of a computer, but.... then I cannot remember ever seeing a defective power supply ).
There was also an early change to the Fan/filter/ventilation of the Black Box.\
I remember receiving units back for repair from a customer where the boards were heavily covered in clay dust.
Remember the 2 wiring guys, John $ Nigel?\
And Carol the receptionist?
Rair started off life providing time share services on a PDP-11/70. Originally based in Neal Street, we moved from there to Camden. I was no longer working at Rair when they moved from Camden.
Good times!
- author: Tim Hill
date: Saturday 27th July 2013
text: |-
@Roy: Good memory, the HQ of RAIR at the time was at the top end of St Martins Lane, on the 2nd floor if I recall.
@Shawn: Yes, I remember Rick, as does Mark Potts. A great loss, such a nice guy, I still remember walking into the office the morning after he died'' such a shock. No idea about his home videos. I still have archived several notes about OS stuff Rock and I exchanged years ago...
@Guenter: So good to hear you are still around!! I was told you weren''t with us any more (seriously). Not sure what Howard is up to, Mark Potts is living in SF and we get together maybe once a year or so for dinner. Sadly, Dave Fogden died of cancer about 4 years ago .. we all miss him.
If anyone wants to contact me: drtimhill@gmail.com
$Tim
- author: roy (uk)
date: Sunday 14th April 2013
text: |-
At some point in the 1980s I shot a video for this company. Unless I''m mistaken - and often I am - the offices we shot in were on the first or second floor of a building at the Trafalgar Sq. end of St. Martins Lane.\
And that''s about all I recall!
- author: mrkoolnerd (usa)
date: Saturday 15th January 2011
text: i have one like new what are you willing to pay price wise
- author: Phil Shaw (Earth)
date: Friday 4th January 2008
text: Hi, I was wondering the availability of the RAIR black box these days.
- author: Grenville Reeves (UK)
date: Thursday 13rd September 2007
text: I was working in an office in the early eighties. We were using a couple of apple europas and were sold a rair black box, 4 monochrome screens and MPM mulit user operating system as an upgrade. It was very, very slow at the best of times but if one person started printing the rest of the screens just hung! After a couple of weeks we exchanged it for 4 stand alone pc's on CPM operating system. 2 of them had hard drives!
oc_id: 454
source:
url: https://web.archive.org/web/20230331024435/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=454