In 1991 SDF expanded to 4 dialups and made use of the AST 4 Port ISA adapter to allocate 4 serial ports to a single PC interrupt for ISC 386/ix UNIX using the FAS driver along with the standard 2 COM ports. In 1993 a second AST 4 Port was and the FAS driver was modified to support it. This allowed SDF to expand to a total of 10 dialup lines at the Sojourn, Addison Texas location.
These Digital Storage Works disk arrays were used from 2003-2009 while SDF was running DEC Alpha servers. Initially the Storage Building Blocks (SBB)s were made up of 4.3GB and 9.1GB SCA SCSI disks, they were upgraded over the years to 18.2GB, 36.4GB and ultimately 73GB.
In 1994 Aaron Schmeidel (aaron) donated SDF’s first 3COM ISDN modem and 128kbps internet connection which was used until 1997. The modem and numbers were repurposed for analogue/digital dialup service using two 56kbps US Robotics modems. This modem and ISDN dialups were retired in 2000 and replaced by nationwide shared POP analogue/ISDN dialup service.
These are the original SDF Kodak Interactive 386/ix UNIX disk drives. In the left to right: Miniscribe 36MB, CDC/Micropolis 40MB, Maxtor XT1140 (137MB) and CDC 338MB disk (used in the 3B2). In the foreground is one of the “fleeting current technology” SATA type drives SDF uses today. This one happens to be 1TB and is already fit for recycle.
While many disks have been drilled or hydraulic pressed prior to recycling, there are still lots that have stuck around over the years.