16 Dec
2025
16 Dec
'25
10:16 p.m.
Hello.
So it is happening. Finally. What a relieve. I am giving away my
(almost) entire classic computer collection. Free of charge (almost).
But local pickup only due to health reasons. Read: Due to a physical
disability I am not able to ship any computers.
Location: Kaiserslautern, Germany.
Almost because I will keep my beloved SPARCstation 1+, my SGI O2 and a
few spare parts for sentimental reasons. I am still tempted to keep a
QBus with a LSI11 and MicroVAX III...
Anything else has to go.
I don't wane make a profit out of it. I want the stuff go into good
hands with absolut minimum effort at my side. As compensation I only ask
for your help to get rid of some other stuff that has accumulated over
the years. (Loads of disk, CDROM and tape drives. Cables, adapters,
expansion cards, RAM modules, ... and some junk in my basement. More
cables, 14" VGA monitor, glass-TTY, 19" rack mounts, empty boxes, ...)
Either you take some of the junk with you, or you help me bring the junk
to the nearby recycling center. I don't care, as long as the junk is
gone. I may also request your help to rearrange existing or install new
furniture in my appartement. (My desk uses the Sun 3/260 as support...)
You want it all? Perfect. Rent a moving truck. Come and get it. You just
want some pieces? Fine. Come, get what you want and take some junk out
of the pile. The more nice stuff you take, the more junk you have to
take. (Sounds worse then it is.)
Almost complete list of stuff available below. Almost all stuff can be
picked up and transported by a singe, strong person. Only a few pieces
will require an additional hand, that I can not provide my self due to
health reasons. Contact me off list with your machines of interest to
get things arranged.
Rationale:
I haven't done anything with this stuff in 15+ years. After 15 years, I
am quite confident that this will not change. I tried to get back into
it in 2010 by acquiring a PDP-11/34A. After a few weeks I lost interest
and now it is sitting partly disassembled and waiting for repairs. (The
PSU bricks need new electrolytic capacitors...) Sitting there for 15
years. Untouched.
I haven't really read any postings to this list in 10+ years. I am
basically only still subscribed to nag myself to write this email.
For me, my machinery is like books that I have read. I had a lot of fun
reading those books. I learned a lot out of them. Most important are the
people that I got to meet via them. Like this very mailing list and the
legendary VAXpower meetings... :-) But now I know all the books. There
is nothing new to discover. The books just sit there on shelves,
collecting dust. It reached a point where all this stuff is getting in
my way to live a happy live. The collection has become an obligation, a
burden. Especially as:
At the end of 2009 my back broke and I needed an emergency surgery. Now
I have to be very careful with lifting and carrying stuff. I don't move
anything over maybe 6 kg anymore. (That is 13ish pounds for you
imperialists. ;-) ) This is also the reason why I can not ship anything.
I am simply not physically able to package the stuff and bring it to the
post office without risking breaking my back again. And when my back
brakes again, I may end up in a wheelchair. I escaped that just barely
when my back broke initially in 2009... Needless to say that this
physical damage also caused mental issues. I will not take any risk
breaking my body again.
Also: I live in an old appartement building. My landlord will renovate
the appartement that I rent in late summer 2026. I may move out of this
appartement into an other one in spring 2026, so that the appartement is
uninhabited during renovation. I will not move all of this stuff to a
new appartement. And if I don't move, I wane get rid of the collection
anyway. It will ease the renovation process a lot. Anything that is not
already gone when the renovation starts, respectively on moving day,
will be recycled. If this means the PDP-11/34A goes into the dumpster to
be shredded, than it will happen.
Machinery:
DEC PDP-11/34A + RK05, optionally in low boy 19" rack.
Shares a RL02 and a Cypher 9-track Pertec tape drive with the 11/73.
Tektronix 4000-something storage tube vector graphics terminal.
I think I still have the accompanying Tek printer.
Originally part of the 11/34A system.
DEC PDP-11/73, the "franken-11"
I pieced this together over time in a BA23 desk side box. Runs 2.11BSD.
Has 4 MB RAM, 2 x MSCP ESDI disks (IIRC 150 MB each), TK50, RL02, SMD
and Pertec adapters. Comes with a 9" 1 GB E-SMD disk. Shares a RL02 and
a Cypher 9-track Pertec tape drive with the 11/34A.
DEC VAX 4000-300, upgraded to a -400
DEC VAX 4000-200
DEC VT1300
2 x DEC VAXstation 2000 (At least one has patched ROMs to boot SCSI.)
DEC VAXstation 3100m76
DEC VAXstation 4000 VLC
DEC VAXstation 4000-60
DEC VAXstation 4000-90
DEC MicroVAX 3100-95
DEC DECstation 3100
DEC DECstation 5000-240
DEC AlphaStation 200 4/166
DEC 3000 300x
DEC 3000 600
DEC Alpha PWS 500au
DEC Alpha DS20E (I don't know for sure. It has no model number on the
front. It looks like a DS20E. I have never, ever even powered up this
thing.)
Tektronix 8560 Multi-User Software Development Unit
This is a DEC PDP-11/23 CPU in Tek box. It runs a customized UNIX V7.
At my parents place there should still be
MicroVAX III
MicroVAX 3500.
2 x 9" NEC E-SMD disks, 1 GB
Tektronix 4000-something text terminal with storage tube.
Additional logistics will be required if you wane retrieve this stuff.
IBM PS/2 Modell 95 XP 486
IBM PS/2 80
IBM RS/6000 43P-140
IBM RS/6000 43P-150
IBM RS/6000 44P-170
SGI Indy
SGI Octane, SSE GFX, PCI card cage with SCSI and FDDI cards.
IIRC 300 MHz R12k and 2 GB RAM. There must be an additional SI or SE
graphics somewhere. I run this machine dual headed. This was my main
desktop from 2001 to 2006.
SGI Personal IRIS, probably a 4D/25, I can't remember.
SGI Indigo IIRC R3000
SGI Indigo IIRC R4000
SGI Indigo 2 teal R4000, Extreme GFX
SGI Indigo 2 magenta R10k, Impact GFX
SGI Octane carcass (Empty main box with front plane, no CPU, GFX, ...)
SGI Origin 200
Sun 3/60
Sun 3/60 box with Sun 4/600 board inside, -12V hack for console RS232.
Sun 4/110
Sun 3/260
Sun SPARCstation IPX
Sun SPARCstation 2
Sun SPARCstation 5
Sun SPARCstation 10
Sun SPARCstation 20
Sun Ultra 1 creator3D
Sun Ultra 2
Sun Ultra 5 ("franken 5" build from parts into a PC box.)
Sun Ultra 10
Sun Netra X1
Sun Netra T1
Sun Fire V240
Apple Macintosh IIci
Apple MacMini G4
Apple PowerMac G5, single 1,8 Ghz.
Motorola MVME Type 3200, desktop box, 4 x 6U VME, IIRC MVME162 CPU.
Sony NEWS NWS-3410
HP Apollo 400 425t
HP 9000 750 (It may be 400s, but IIRC it is a 750.)
HP 9000 B2000
Loads of (mostly SCSI) disk, CDROM and tape drives. Cables, adapters,
expansion cards, RAM modules, hubs, switches, FDDI concentrator, ...
IBM P200 / Sony Trinitron 19" monitor. Does sync on green.
I used it with my SGIs.
HP LaserJet 4 with JetDirect LAN
(The VF-Display is dead, but otherwise works.)
2 x HP Scanjet IIc, one has an Automated Document Feeder.
Works great with Impresario from SGI IRIX.
Test equipment:
Dolch Logic Instruments logic analyzer. IIRC 48 channels @ 300 MHz.
HP Digital Storage Oscilloscope 54710 with 3 x 1 GHz / 2 Msamels/s
Y-modules.
Analog photo gear:
Durst Laborator 1000 4"x5" enlarger, table top version.
--
tschüss,
Jochen