Calling all Multicians!
Do you have Multics manuals hiding in your attic? Would you like to reclaim all that space in your basement? Please consider loaning—or donating—those materials to the Multics History Project so they can be preserved effectively.
Among other things, we have the MSPM (4 copies so far), the MPM-SPS, MTBs from #1 to #770, a lot of MCRs (but no index and apparently with some big gaps), full sets of MR10.2 and MR11.0 documentation, MIBs, MCBs, MSBs, a set of MR10.2 hardcore listings, and lots of other stuff.
We're looking to fill in the gaps, especially:
- Anything pre-1975 (except the MSPM and SPS--those we have!)
- Correspondence or files relating to the operation of the project
- Repository Documents (there are almost none in the MIT collection)
- MCBs. Over 1076 MCBs were produced but only know the titles of 111 and have none scanned.
- MCR index (either printed or online). There were at least 8276 MCRs from 1973-1992. We only have info on about 2245.
- Missing MTBs: see below for details
- Earlier (pre-MR10) published documentation sets
- Hardware documents (EPS-1, EPS-2 for CPUs and peripherals)
- SRBs (we have only MR4 and MR10.2)
- MABs (there are none in the MIT collection)
- MDDs (there are none in the MIT collection)
- MADs (there are none in the MIT collection)
- Marketing materials, especially non-U.S.
- Site-specific materials, such as newsletters, operations guides, etc.
- Ephemera: coffee mugs. buttons, posters, T-shirts, etc.
- Anything in electronic form
If you have anything that might meet this description, please get in touch with Olin Sibert or Roger Roach
Our plan for the project is to scan (or photograph) all the material, making a detailed index of titles, authors, and dates as we go. We will do a quality check to be sure every scan was successful, and where possible will perform OCR on the scanned material. At the end, we'll produce enough CD-ROMs or DVDs to hold the whole thing, and put up the index and the more interesting parts of the material on the multicians.org web site.
The Computer History Museum has agreed to take one full set of donated materials after we weed out the duplicates. We'll return anything that was only loaned, and then dispose of the redundant paper copies—if you've ever wanted an MSPM of your very own, now is the time to speak up.
Want to help? If you're in the area (i.e., convenient to MIT), we're looking for volunteers to help with processing the material. E-mail Olin or Roger for details.
Missing MTBs
Fifteen MTBs are missing from the MIT collection. According to the master MTB index, these appear to have been issued (they have legitimate titles and content), but we don't have copies in the MIT collection.
We are actively looking for those; if you think you might have any, please let us know!
- MTB-047: 1974-03-13, Additional Security Controls for Multics, Jerry Stern
- MTB-256: 1976-01-27, Approved MCRs: 760101 to 760131, Joan Archer Scott (we have only the cover page)
- MTB-271: 1976-04-15, Implementation of the Multics Data Base Manager, Oris D. Friesen, Roger Lackey, Dick Luebke, Jim Weeldreyer
- MTB-272: 1976-04-15, Multics Relational Data Store, Oris D. Friesen, Roger D. Lackey, Dick Luebke, Jim Weeldreyer
- MTB-273: 1976-04-15, Multics Integrated Data Store, James Falksen, Oris D. Friesen, Roger D. Lackey, Dick Luebke, Jim Weeldreyer
- MTB-291: 1976-07-22, Draft Programming and Documentation Guide, Ellie Stone, John W. Gintell, Steven H. Webber
- MTB-292: 1976-06-28, A New Pointer Conversion Routine, Gary C. Dixon
- MTB-293: 1976-07-30, Improved Directory Hash Table, Susan E. Barr
- MTB-306: 1976-09-15, Approved MCRs: 760901 to 760915, Joan Archer Scott (we have only one line of text)
- MTB-481: 1980-12-17, A Framework of Goals Toward More Complete Data Management Capabilities on Multics, Matt C. Pierret (we have this but the copy is very faint)
The following MTBs also don't appear in the MIT collection, but the master MTB index doesn't know about them, either, so it seems safe to conclude that they do not actually exist: 428, 444, 445, 456, 463, 471, 477, 495, 526, 529, 530, 532, 540, 546, 562, 578, 582, 591, 595, 633, 678, 690, 702, 704, 705, 707, 720, 721, 722, 723, 725, 726, 727, 728, and 759.
updated 2018-07-01 by thvv because some MTBs were found.