The Kermit Factory 1986

Kermit room — The Kermit distribution area, back of 7th floor Watson lab, 1986. Click image to enlarge.

This is an illustration by George Ulrich from Kermit, A File Transfer Protocol showing what became of IBM's raised-floor machine room in the back of the 7th floor of Watson Lab, which had originally housed an IBM 1620.

On the right you can see the 9-track tape drives from the VAX-11/750, and just left of them a VAX-11/730 (perhaps the slowest computer ever made), which were part of the Hermit grant, but were also used to cut Kermit tapes.

The original Kermites were young parents (hence the toddler under the table) and also not exactly neatness fanatics. About 1992, the room was demolished and partitioned into offices for the networks group; the Kermit room moved to the penthouse (former cafeteria and, later, ping-pong room).