3300 computer image

Wang 3300 Last Dinosaur

In 2013, Willy Spreutels left a comment in the guestbook mentioning that he had a 3300 system. I tracked him down and prevailed on him to supply some pictures. Here they are!

Willy had this to say about the history of this particular machine:

I received this machine with the mini cassette drive and 2 teletypes and the paper tapes in the middle eighties from a friend at the Free University of Brussels. He told me this machine was used before by a general store named C&A to control up to 128 (?) cash registers in the shop(s).

The teletypes were in bad condition and it was very difficult to load the tapes, but I was able to connect the 3300 to a Tektronix terminal with the serial line and a home-made opto-isolator.

I programmed it with front panel to have a test program me running (two imbricated loops).

I left the university in 1988 and abandoned the teletypes and the tapes in my office there and now they are lost. I tried to have the paper tapes transferred on files but it make the CDC 170 mainframe crash when opening the file …

Since that time I kept it in my garage since that time and put it in a metallic cabinet only last week-end. So it will be probably necessary to clean it inside because some diesel smoke goes probably inside.

Below are the photos supplied by Willie. Click on any image to get a full sized version. Willie knows that some of the photos are blurry and hopes to find time to shoot better ones.

Willy Spreutel's Wang 3300 CPU, front view
Willy Spreutel's Wang 3300 CPU, front view
Willy Spreutel's Wang 3300 CPU, another view
Willy Spreutel's Wang 3300 CPU, another view
Willy Spreutel's Wang 3300 CPU, yet another view
Willy Spreutel's Wang 3300 CPU, yet another view
Willy Spreutel's Wang 3300 CPU, rear view
Willy Spreutel's Wang 3300 CPU, rear view
Willy Spreutel's Wang 3300 dual cassette unit, front view
Willy Spreutel's Wang 3300 Dual Cassette unit, front view
Willy Spreutel's Wang 3300 dual cassette unit, top front view
Willy Spreutel's Wang 3300 Dual Cassette unit, top front view
Willy Spreutel's Wang 3300 dual cassette unit, rear view
Willy Spreutel's Wang 3300 Dual Cassette unit, rear view