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Was wondering if I sent some pics of some old 1983 digital computers and monitors I got if you could give me more info. Not knowledgeable with computers, just retired and started computer scrapping. Thanks again

If with Digital you mean the company... fairly easily.
83 is the beginning of the x86 16bit era and the end of the x80/x88 era. Digital also had some late x40 computers at that time. As well as an Acorn comparable and a Tandy-like set of systems.

Intel-based systems; They generally had a dos or CPM variant and a licensed window layer.
DII was popular in the mid 80s. An image of a quad layout. Files. Software. Digital, and service.
Though nothing was actually graphically done. Just let you click on an image rather than type in the command line. I can’t remember who wrote it and it fell into obscurity. Too bad because IBM stole the quad layout design just a very short while later for the Personal System launcher.

The Acorn based systems used Unix. The Tandy based used a number of OSs.

Post the model number and I can probably tell you what was originally in it.
With photos I can get close.
Just remember that was the time of computer clubs and tinkering. It’s rare to find a pre-1986 (home/client) machine that is 100% original.

Over all they are best know for their VAX minicomputers and terminals from pre-1984. But they made some arm powerhouses at the time that ran circles around intel.
Those arm chips were designed by digital and an obscure little company called Advanced Micro Devices. ;)

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These are the pictures. Thank you for taking the time.

The rainbow is well known. A dual processor machine with a a Z80 and an 8080.
CPM and Dos originally but a lot of retro users install Unix, uBSD, or a mini Linux.

I believe the 45 is a self reliant terminal.
The tk is a tape drive

And obviously you have a PDP/11 minicomputer.

My guess is the 44 is the output station for the 11.

Nice haul there.

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It takes a fair bit of work to get a dormant one running but the PDP could fetch quite a bit. Few hundred+

Rainbow: swap the batteries with new ones. Gently reseat all the ICs. If it boots sell. If not it is better for scrap. They’re a pain to work on if they don’t load and pre test.

I’d sell the tape drive ‘as is’ and call it done. $25-75 condition unknown on average. But you’re chance of getting a working used tape is slim and buying blanks costs a fair bit just to test a drive.

Keyboards look great so definitely sell those.

Before you do anything at all pop all the cases (except monitors) off and blow them out with a can duster. Then with the case off and on a hard non conducting surface plug them in and Power them up.
If anything has power you’ve got a project ahead of you. If not scrap it.

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Fantastic, will do.would I be better off to find a vintage buyer. Thanks again

Ebay is a good place for this stuff.
The 11 is worth learning about and tinkering with just because they’re fairly rare and can be worth a lot of money, junk computer wise.

The rainbow is the opposite end of the spectrum. A fairly well known system that is nearly as well known for there being no original configurations left. It was definitely meant to be a consumer’s version of a kit computer and they’re just about all modified. Most computer junkies walk away when it doesn’t work after some minor cleaning and reseating.
When I’m presented with one my first and only demand is boot it into an OS. If it can’t we’re under $20 as a scrap system.

There’s a chance if it’s still populated you may have a gold cap Z80 and intel 8080. My guess would be a replacement Plastic intel 8080 and/or an AMD 80-8 if anyone used it in the last 10 years or so though.
But if you can’t get it to boot just give up. I’ve seen enough rainbows to know how easy it is to make a door stop out of it.

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