Northern Telecom SS-400
I never used the SS-400. I didn’t even sell it to its owner, but when he was through with it, he realized its importance, and I can only guess that he realized that it would be safe with me.
In 1986 my friend was looking at ways to improve the efficiency of his design and engineering firm. He realized that computers were the way of the future, but even though he was a “sales guy,” he realized that computers were not just for engineers. He wanted a computer that his secretaries, and even he, himself, could not only use, but also administer. The only computer that fit that kind of bill was a Mac. He bought six of them. And for the next twelve years, until he sold the business and retired, he stayed with Macs, and did most of the administration himself. Over those twelve years he upgraded the Macs every three to four years, and as systems became more powerful and as new services that made sense to him and supported his business became available, he jumped on the bandwagon. First it was plotters, and then came file servers, networked printers, Internet services, networked fax services and computer controlled white boards. He installed one of the first computer controlled teleconferencing systems I ever saw. He went to MacWorld every year so he could get a head start on emerging technology.
In 1987 he decided he needed someone in the industry he could trust. Someone he could bang ideas off of and help him make decisions. Who better than the Systems Engineer who had been helping him all along? For better or worse, that someone was me. I know that our relationship was highly beneficial to him, I just hope he knows how important it was to me and how honoured I was to be given that trust. In the beginning, I couldn’t afford to go to MacWorld. He took me – paying, lock stock and barrel. When the company I was working for went belly up, it was he who convinced me to go out on my own. When things got to their worst, he gave me a job ‘till I could get my feet under me again, even though things were working so smoothly that there really wasn’t anything for me to do. It was a wonderful relationship that I deeply cherish. We still keep in touch today, me retired in rural Nova Scotia and he in his Florida condo or on his Mac-equipped forty-foot trawler.
After thirty years of doing just about anything, it’s easy to become jaded. You can almost read it between the lines in the articles written by some of us older… more mature… veteran… oh hell!... old farts still writing reports, reviews and commentary in the technology press today.
I’m often reminded of this fact, and my own distinguished career… longevity… enduring… damn it!.. the donkey’s age I’ve been doing it, and I worry that I too could be starting to look at the new marvels that unfold almost daily, with a jaded eye.
Then, out of the corner of my eye, I look into the darkness under the desk behind me, in the corner of my office, tucked away and often forgotten, and there I see my Northern Telecom SS-400, and I realize just how far we have come, and how short a time it has taken to get here. Things all come into perspective once again, and that spark of amazement at the latest “whiz-bang” sitting on my desk is rekindled. Everything old is new again, and nothing ceases to amaze me once more.
But let’s get back to the SS-400 under my desk.
Believe it or not, there was a time, back in the ‘80s when Apple was “real big” in the Enterprise market. One of Apple’s biggest customers was Boeing Aircraft, and believe it or not, Boeing Aircraft used a huge number of Macs and Mac servers. The big problem then, as it still is today, was how to store thousands and thousands of files, and how to keep them safe.
The answer came from Northern Telecom, in the form of a family of external SCSI hard drives designed specifically for use with file servers. These were genuine, industrial quality, ultra-high-end devices consisting of a large computer-grade chassis, containing a heavy-duty, buffered power supply, a large Northern Telecom 5¼-inch hard drive, an integrated Exabyte 8mm tape drive for back-up and a large, noisy fan to keep everything cool. As you can see in the photograph, the box was larger than most PCs in use today. Each Northern Telecom SS-400 came at a “no haggle” price of over $10,000!
Well, if it was good enough for Boeing Aircraft, it was good enough for my friend, so he promptly bought two. Nothing was too good for his company. When my friend eventually upgraded to newer servers, he asked me if I would like to have one of his SS-400’s to add to my burgeoning hardware collection. I said yes, and it’s been with me ever since.
The Northern Telecom SS-400 was the last of this series built by NT. It contained a whopping 765MB of storage on its huge, noisy 5¼-inch drive. Once a year or so, I fall into a nostalgic frame of mind and pull out the old SE/30 that was the server, attach the SS-400 and fire everything up. Like an old friend, these old workhorses whir and rattle into life… the massive hard drive rumbles like a helicopter starting up, as the heads align themselves, and then, the whole shootin’ match is up and running, ready for yet another good days work, as always.
Whenever I start to wonder if I too am becoming jaded… a rusting, rumbling old curmudgeon who thinks he’s seen it all, I just look over my shoulder, deep in the shadows under the desk behind me, and spot that old SS-400. Then I reach in my pocket and feel the tiny 32GB flash drive lying beside my keys. That’s all it takes. I know I’m still on the right track, and everything’s all right for another year.
