> The mainframe is currently in Seattle, and the guide price is $40,000 - $60,000, with 19 days left of the auction period
> the machine used approximately 14,000 Standard Modular System cards. These cards housed about 30,000 alloy-junction germanium transistors and 22,000 germanium diodes. Due to this bulk, an IBM 7070 system weighs over 23,000 pounds (10,430kg).
Germanium is ~$3000/kg right now -- considerably more expensive than silver. If there's just 15kg germanium in that 10,500kg bulk, the value of the metal already exceeds the auction estimate.
1 comment
[ 2.1 ms ] story [ 15.2 ms ] thread> the machine used approximately 14,000 Standard Modular System cards. These cards housed about 30,000 alloy-junction germanium transistors and 22,000 germanium diodes. Due to this bulk, an IBM 7070 system weighs over 23,000 pounds (10,430kg).
Germanium is ~$3000/kg right now -- considerably more expensive than silver. If there's just 15kg germanium in that 10,500kg bulk, the value of the metal already exceeds the auction estimate.