Michael Ross is a self-professed "hardware hacker" who collects old IBM computer systems . . . and collects, and collects, and collects, and collects. His personal museum, which he started in the 1990s, weighs 15 tons and could fill a 10-car garage. "If it has flashing lights, I’m interested in it," Ross chuckles.

A former software engineer and current stay-at-home dad and tinkerer, Ross coordinates his 100-system caboodle through his own Web site, Corestore, an eclectic mix of lightly professional and largely personal tidbits that focus on his wish list for computer acquisitions and the daily goings-on at the Ross homes in Mamaroneck, New York, and the far northern highlands along the Scottish coast. Sons Iain (3) and Sandy (16 months), wife Diana (a financier), an occasional au pair, and the backyard fauna all contribute to the fun.

"Corestore," Ross explains, is a play on words that predates the development of silicon chips. "Before that technology was invented, companies still had core memory and used doughnut-like cores made of magnetic material with wires running throughout and a current passing through that would magnetize them. These constituted the core memory or ‘core store.’ My museum is a big warehouse where I store old computers that otherwise would have been scrapped or melted down for gold."

A visit to the "ancient computer" site offers details and images of IBM’s System/3 ("the ultimate ancestor of the AS/400"), System/32 (the first model "a basket case" and the second one "a work in progress"), System/34 and System/36 ("new arrivals"), System/38 ("a truly fascinating machine, direct ancestor of the AS/400, which was nearly called the System/40," and very advanced for the early 1980s), System/360, System/370 ("including my complete 9375, one of the last rackmount System/370 machines"), System/390, and also a circa 1964 IBM 1800 ("a predecessor of the System/7 and Series/1 machines, this is my oldest computer - a close relative of the System/360").

Several of the models in Ross’s stash boast rather unusual backgrounds.

One System/38 he acquired fell off a truck and bounced down some stairs. "It’s a testament to IBM engineering that it was not damaged at all. Now we know that a /38 is good for surviving a four-foot drop off the back of a truck," he laughs. He rescued his PDP 15 from a shed on a British air force firing range. "I had to make an offer to purchase it from the British Ministry of Defense," Ross recalls. "The paperwork involved in arranging to get something given away free was unbelievable." His PDP 12 came from a British research hospital. It was first passed to someone else even though it had been promised to Ross. His efforts to try to win it back were futile at first. Then "five years later out of the blue" he received an e-mail from the owner and was at last able to acquire the piece.

Many of his machines are in use and operating as well. "For those that don’t work, it’s an ongoing project," Ross explains. "I don’t want static exhibits just collecting dust." Although he would love to store his collection in one location so that he could dabble with his computers more often, he says he would need "a huge house with a good big garage and basement and a barn or a stable" to do that. His prizes are currently kept in three locations - at his home in Mamaroneck and at storage units in New York City and England. Since he and his family visit their cottage in Scotland each year, he would like to move some of the equipment there so that he could tinker during their holidays.

Ross says he enjoys being part of a network of computer collectors. While some aficionados actively participate in discussion and news groups, others are reclusive and "no one knows what they are working on or trying to get," he notes. He finds that the majority of his colleagues are interested in early microcomputers and DEC PDP systems rather than IBM products.

"In 1996 I picked up a B35, an early AS/400 that was being thrown out. That was my first experience with IBM stuff," he recalls. He and his wife moved to the United States in 1998. "It’s only here that my IBM collection has really taken off. The IBM approach to building computers is very different. I’m not a professionally trained hardware engineer, but I think the way the company puts its machines together is very thoughtful and interesting." His accumulation also includes vintage IBM mainframe control panels.

Ross owns several iSeries boxes and prides himself on being the first person to run the Hercules System/390 emulator on an iSeries machine running Linux.

Now in his early 40s, Ross originally envisioned himself as a geologist when he completed his undergraduate work at Glasgow University in Scotland. Instead he earned a master’s degree in information technology and launched a career that included positions as a software engineer, programmer, and field service trainer. Before he became a full-time dad, he was writing code to test software in New York City. "I’ve done everything in the industry except sales," he points out.

His wife, Diana, who has a doctorate in physical chemistry but now works in NYC as a portfolio manager for high-yield bonds, doesn’t object to her husband’s Corestore activities. In fact, she is the one who triggered his obsession with old computers when she brought home a "thing" from the Cambridge University chemistry department that was earmarked as garbage. "I had a general sort of interest in electronics, but it took me quite awhile to figure out that it was a computer — a DEC PDP-8e. I started researching what it could do, and the whole thing just sort of took over from there," he explains. "It captured my imagination."

In addition to highlighting his computer mania, Ross’s Web site features photos and information about his assortment of antique gas turbines and also gives a visual tour of the kinds of British scrap yards that have yielded his treasures. "I like nothing better than exploring aviation, military, and computer-specialized scrap yards, junkyards, and breakers," he notes. "I enjoy messing around with old bits of engineering and jet engines when I fancy some noise." Visitors to Corestore can also learn about the history of hydropower in Scotland.

Ross chronicles his family life as well, treating viewers to photos and updates of the antics of sons Iain and Sandy, both of whom received their own Internet domains when they were born. Iain, we learn, is "fearless" and "curious," while younger brother Sandy is "happy" and "sweet natured." Ross says his fauna photos (which show deer, groundhogs, raccoons, coyotes, opossums, rabbits, squirrels, skunks, chipmunks, hawks, and even centipedes) are posted to show friends in Great Britain the variety of animal habitat in New York.

A "Scotsman born and bred," Ross is from Dingwall and enjoys mountaineering, walking in the hills, and scuba diving. Once his boys begin elementary school, Ross says he might try to start a business in which he would restore old computers and present them for sale. He is also considering setting up Corestore as a nonprofit corporation and museum.

"I hope people reading this article will think of any early IBM machines they have in the corner of their garage or in the basement," Ross says. "I am always interested in finding them. It’s kind of important to grab these computers before they are all gotten rid of."