Tornado Computer (Programmer Electronic Control)...
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Tornado Computer (Programmer Electronic Control)...
Hi dear experts,
recently I came across an offer from a company mainly selling used equipment in the UK. On their web site they offer a sort of black box for sale. Those boxes have been on eBay, too. This box titled "Programmer Electronic Control" shall have been part of a Computer of the Tornado aircraft as their offer claims.
Looking at the pictures the box is full of 74xx TTL-chips having been obsolete 15 years ago. So it might be 30 years old. Does anybody know what is was used for? Since it contains quite a lot memory for those days it might indeed have been some vital computer part? Additionally I wonder where these boxes come from?
Thanks,
Erik.
'Erik' - a few amendments to remove commercial links etc, as per forum rules
Additional Info, 1/24/2005, Baigar: Sorry for my mistake in including a link to a commercial site. The partnumber of the box, made by Marconi Avionics, is 51-019-02, NSN1680-99-652-3410. It contains lots of modules.
recently I came across an offer from a company mainly selling used equipment in the UK. On their web site they offer a sort of black box for sale. Those boxes have been on eBay, too. This box titled "Programmer Electronic Control" shall have been part of a Computer of the Tornado aircraft as their offer claims.
Looking at the pictures the box is full of 74xx TTL-chips having been obsolete 15 years ago. So it might be 30 years old. Does anybody know what is was used for? Since it contains quite a lot memory for those days it might indeed have been some vital computer part? Additionally I wonder where these boxes come from?
Thanks,
Erik.
'Erik' - a few amendments to remove commercial links etc, as per forum rules
Additional Info, 1/24/2005, Baigar: Sorry for my mistake in including a link to a commercial site. The partnumber of the box, made by Marconi Avionics, is 51-019-02, NSN1680-99-652-3410. It contains lots of modules.
Last edited by baigar; 25th Jan 2005 at 06:41.
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I took some photos of the box and put em on my homepage (see http://www.baigar.de/TornadoComputerUnit/) maybe someone is interested...
The label of the box reads "Programmer electronic Control", manufactured by Marconi Avionics with part number 51-019-02, NSN1680-99-652-3410. There are lots of boards in it. Among them are boards dealing with driving the core memory:
(1) Driver Board, 1680-99-646-6754 and
(2) Data Board, 1680-99-646-6755.
The core memory itself consists of a sandwich of two boards by GEC-Computers. The capacity must be around 64k Bits:
(3) Core Memory, 5841-99-652-3386.
Thanks, Erik.
And more boards beeing something like a processor assembled from discrete components.
The label of the box reads "Programmer electronic Control", manufactured by Marconi Avionics with part number 51-019-02, NSN1680-99-652-3410. There are lots of boards in it. Among them are boards dealing with driving the core memory:
(1) Driver Board, 1680-99-646-6754 and
(2) Data Board, 1680-99-646-6755.
The core memory itself consists of a sandwich of two boards by GEC-Computers. The capacity must be around 64k Bits:
(3) Core Memory, 5841-99-652-3386.
Thanks, Erik.
And more boards beeing something like a processor assembled from discrete components.
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During the last weeks some small pieces of information accumulated and indicate that the unit was part of the Tab-TV system in the rear cockpit of very early panavia tornado aircraft. The box was manufactured by Marconi avionic's "Airborne Display Division" in Rochester, Kent/England.
Has anybody out there seen those displays? Where they alphanumerically only or was it possible to display lineart graphics? More displays?
Thanks, Erik.
Has anybody out there seen those displays? Where they alphanumerically only or was it possible to display lineart graphics? More displays?
Thanks, Erik.
