test-drb October 2007

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

228 participants
467 discussions

Anyone collect Dec/Compaq Alphaservers or VAXen

by cheri-post＠web.de

> > On 9/30/07, Scott Quinn <compoobah at valleyimplants.com> wrote: > > Ethan Dicks wrote: > > > I have a DEC 4000 (Futurebus+, 1 CPU installed approx 384MB RAM... [...] > It already has network and have plenty of SCSI busses, but if I'm > going to be paying to power this thing up, it might as well be fully > loaded. I've had it for years and never run across loose spare parts > - so I'm thinking if I ever _do_ get to upgrade mine, it will be by > harvesting parts from another DEC 4000. Ethan, I share the same experience in regard to DEC 4000 spare parts. Apparently, the Futurebus systems were quite rare. Situation seems to be such, that can get parts only , when you're lucky enough to obtain another DEC 4000 system. The spare parts problem seems to be so serious, that I know of people, who won't let their DEC 4000 run, as they are afraid that boards or other parts my become defective... knowing that it's difficult to get replacement boards. Kind regards, Pierre ______________________________________________________________________________ Jetzt neu! Im riesigen WEB.DE Club SmartDrive Dateien freigeben und mit Freunden teilen! http://www.freemail.web.de/club/smartdrive_ttc.htm/?mc=021134

18 years, 1 month

VSII/GPX joy (and minor annoyance)

by Arno_1983＠gmx.de

(Hah...Just in time to join in when vax-ownership is asked!) Hello folks, my very first DEC computer has arrived - a VAXstation II/GPX in a BA123 enclosure from Jos Dreesen, which I just brought home from Switzerland last weekend with the help of my parents. Thanks again! The original configuration of the system was: Slot AB CD 1 ----KA630-A CPU---- 2 ----some memory---- 3 ----more memory---- 4 -DELQA- ..empty.. 5 -RQDX3- ..empty.. 6 ----QDSS 4-plane--- 7 ----QDSS 4-plane--- 8 ----QDSS base------ 9-12 .......empty....... 13 ..empty.. -RQ Dist- As to mass storage, there is a RX33 floppy drive in the vertical bay and the system has one HDD frontpanel insert installed. It came with a dead (possibly revivable) RD53, but a fellow collector also gave me a supposedly functional one. I assume the backplane is the original 4x Q/CD, 8x Q/Q thing that belongs in a BA123 as indicated by the lettering in the cardcage. To my understanding, this means the grant chain was broken in slot 5 (after the RQDX3) because there's no board in its CD half. I rearranged the cards so that the RQDX3 now resides in 4AB, the QDSS base board is in 5AD and the DELQA in 8CD (I hope I did get that serpentine configuration right). After correcting an issue with the cardcage fan (which turned out to be just the connector inside the fan tray plugged in backwards!), I hooked up a crufty old laptop as a terminal but didn't get any output as the selftest always got stuck at "A", which corresponds to a keyboard/pointing device problem. This is supposedly normal since I have the VCB02 video option installed but nothing plugged into it. (I have yet to get myself a DEC keyboard, mouse and the BC18Z splitter box cable; at the same time, I'll be looking for a TK drive with controller and any other stuff I can cram in there.) I can get into console I/O mode (chevron prompt) by sending a Break from the terminal but it's a bit annoying that I don't get to see the CPU version banner and the test countdown that way. Shorting pins 8 and 9 on the serial console connector didn't make any difference either (I have read it will cause some VAXstations to use that as console instead of the graphics display) - bit of a bummer considering that any humble SPARCstation who realizes they haven't got a keyboard attached will start using the serial console. I have read the KA630 User's Guide, especially the meaning of the BBU RAM contents, and it doesn't look as if there is anything short of hacking the POST code and burning a new PROM that could be done about it, but if I have overlooked something, I'm all ears. Other than that, I'm off now looking for a MOP server and some netbootable OS image, perhaps NetBSD, for a start... Yours sincerely Arno Kletzander, DEC neophyte ;) -- Arno Kletzander Stud. Hilfskraft Informatik Sammlung Erlangen www.iser.uni-erlangen.de Ist Ihr Browser Vista-kompatibel? Jetzt die neuesten Browser-Versionen downloaden: http://www.gmx.net/de/go/browser

18 years, 1 month

Anyone collect Dec/Compaq Alphaservers or VAXen?

by RodSmallwood＠mail.ediconsulting.co.uk

My list pdp11/94 x 4 R DEC Rainbow 100+ * VAX 300 * VAX 400 * VAX 500 R VAXStation 3100 * DEC 3000 * Multia * * = Working R = Renovation (Mostly missing parts) Rod Smallwood -----Original Message----- From: cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org [mailto:cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Allison Sent: 29 September 2007 14:04 To: cctech at classiccmp.org Subject: Re: Anyone collect Dec/Compaq Alphaservers or VAXen? > >Subject: Anyone collect Dec/Compaq Alphaservers or VAXen? > From: "Dan Snyder" <ddsnyder at zoominternet.net> > Date: Fri, 28 Sep 2007 20:32:23 -0400 > To: <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > >To all, > >I have monitored the postings and know of a few collectors of VAXen, >all types it seems. The PDP family is popular too. What about >Alphaservers? some are by classic definition at least 10 years old such >as the 1000/1000A and 1200 series. Alphastations definitely qualify >like the 200/250/255/500 series. I collect most of the Alpha family as I use them frequently. OpenVMS and Digital Unix is the OS of choice. I collect Qbus PDP-11s and MicroVAX and also have a selection of 3100 series machines (VAXserver and microVAX). OS for the Vaxen are OVMS5.4, V7.3 and also Ultrix4.2. OS for the PDP-11s is RT11, RSTS and unixV6. Never considered Alpha as they are too recent for me. If I had one it would be in daily service. Allison

18 years, 1 month

gEDA symbols

by doc＠mdrconsult.com

I'm fiddling around with the gEDA suite, and I'm finding that nearly none of the chips I want to use - MC6809[E], NEC 675, some 74LSxxx chips - have symbols in the gschem libraries. I have the 6809E and 765 parts done, but there are several smaller parts to go. After thinking about it, I seem to remember that this came up a few months ago, and that somebody (Dave?) either had an extensive private symbol library or knew of an online repository. Anyhow, I thought I'd ask before I invent anymore wheels. Anyone have pointers to "obsolete" and arcane part descriptions for gschem? Doc

18 years, 1 month

Anyone collect Dec/Compaq Alphaservers or VAXen

by compoobah＠valleyimplants.com

> I have a DEC 4000 (Futurebus+, 1 CPU installed approx 384MB RAM, > IIRC), and a "no-name" AXPpci33. My DEC 4000 came with one 5.25" SCSI > drive and 3 3.5" SCSI drives, with OSF/1 or similar on one disk, and > OpenVMS on another. DEC 4000/AS8000 have interested me for a while- were there any other commercially available general-purpose computers using the Futurebus+? I know that most AS8ks probably don't have the Futurebus+ adaptor, but it is available. Pity they are so big. > I bought the AXPpci33 as a bare board, but the > DEC 4000 came from Uni Surplus and used to be known as "Oscar", the > machine that ran the card catalog for the library system at The Ohio > State University. "Card Catalog" - ILS (Integrated Library System) please! They do so much more than simple cataloging now. I realized how much of a computer snob I was this week- my school system is considering replacing their current ILS (Dynix Scholar, circa 1988 interface) with either Follett or DynixSirsi. I have a hard time taking Follett seriously because it's Windows-NT only.

18 years, 1 month

kodak kims (VAX?) available

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

I received this email today... if interested contact me off-list... ----- I Just today saved a Kodak KIMS workstation from being thrown in the garbage. It appers to be a VAX based system produced by digital for Kodak to be used as some sort of specalized information management and photo editing machine. I was only able to save the system itself. http://www.steubentech.com/~talon/KIMS/

18 years, 1 month

EPROM deaths...

by julesrichardsonuk＠yahoo.co.uk

Is there any kind of common failure mode for EPROMs? I've just had a couple which are refusing to erase - I'm getting repeating patterns of bits which refuse to clear (i.e. go high) under the eraser. Normally they seem to erase in ten minutes, twenty at the most - these pair have had 30 so far. Just wondering whether to keep baking 'em or just toss them because they're junk... (I've managed to find what I did with my nice eraser - but it'll still only erase a couple of chips at once) cheers Jules

18 years, 1 month

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test-drb October 2007