>Just scored a couple SGI 4D/220s from a government auction site.
>Anyone have any familiarity with these? Anything I should look out
>for besides what's
>
>Crappy auction pics:
<http://www.xmission.com/~legalize/vintage/images/4D-220-1.jpg>
<http://www.xmission.com/~legalize/vintage/images/4D-220-2.jpg>
So you bought those twin tower systems. We were all crying over them. Those are Twin Tower 4D systems as you can already see and they are not the most powerful things out there as they are pretty old. They should be able to run Irix 4.0.5 but that is it and I don't know much about Irix software older than version 5.3 so you better hope that there are some GL demos installed. In all honesty I recommend you go talk to the folks over at http://www.nekochan.net as they are the last people on the net really to tame these old beasts. I also recommend http://www.martnet.com/~bobd/sgi/4dfaq.html as it contains a nice FAQ and tells you how to make a serial terminal cable adapter which is essential for any SGI system.
John.
Thanks for all the replies over the last few days. I am sorry I have not
replied to them, I have been away for work all week (and will be away again
over the next few weeks). I thought I would gather up my various responses
into one email, so here goes.
To the person who asked about the enclosure. This is a BA23 and has only one
PSU, so without that PSU I cannot try to get the machine running again.
The harness I have is not the same as either of the two that someone sent me
pictures of. It is not a ribbon cable, it has discrete wires, of different
lengths, its part number is 70-20450-01, rev C1 and there is a date of 9th
Dec 1985 on it. The actual connectors though look like the connectors on the
bad ribbon cable harness, I think they are MTA-156.
Some have suggested it blew because I had insufficient load. I had a TK50
and an RD53 attached, would that no be sufficient. Furthermore I did not
actually switch the PSU on, just connected it to the mains, would the load
connected to the PSU matter when the PSU is not actually switched on?
There was also a suggestion that the PSU would have needed switching
separately for 50Hz operation as well. The hardware manual I have for the
machine tells me how to switch between 110 and 240, but does not say
anything about switching it for frequency, so I suspect this was not an
issue here.
>From the various responses I think it would be unwise for me to attempt a
repair. Is there anyone on this list who is in the UK who would be willing
and able to fix this PSU, or who knows someone who might be?
Thanks
Rob
I will be continually adding listings on Ebay that will run at fixed
prices until sold. For those of you reading cctalk, if you make me an
offer for zero and reference cctalk, the item is yours for shipping.
Check my stuff out at http://myworld.ebay.com/frotz661. If you're not on
speaking terms with Ebay, take a look anyway and email me if you like
something you see.
--
David Griffith
dgriffi at cs.csubak.edu
A: Because it fouls the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?
A: Top-posting.
Q: What is the most annoying thing in e-mail?
Ethan Dicks said he wanted the copy of Zaks' "CP/M Handbook" I offered up
in October. We both forgot about it. I tried emailing him at his
usap.gov address just now and that came back as invalid. Ethan, if you're
reading this, please email me!
--
David Griffith
dgriffi at cs.csubak.edu
A: Because it fouls the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?
A: Top-posting.
Q: What is the most annoying thing in e-mail?
Spread across several ziplock bags I found a bunch of system diskettes for
the venerable Xerox 8010. The disks are in excellent condition and there
are lots of duplicates. Is there a museum in need of some of these?
Also, would someone please point me to a list of diskettes originally
shipped with the machine?
--
David Griffith
dgriffi at cs.csubak.edu
A: Because it fouls the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?
A: Top-posting.
Q: What is the most annoying thing in e-mail?
On Sat, Feb 28, 2009 at 12:11 AM, Zane H. Healy <healyzh at aracnet.com> wrote:
> At 12:03 AM -0500 2/28/09, John Floren wrote:
>>
>> It's not so much what I have as what I will be soon inheriting from
>> the good folks over at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics; I'm not
>> sure of the exact model but it's a MicroPDP-11 of some type. Comes
>> with an RX02. More details when it actually gets decommissioned and I
>> pick it up.
>
> Sounds like you might be getting a MINC-11.
>
> Zane
>
Cool as a MINC-11 would be, I've seen the system and it's in a
standard BA23, not the MINC box.
John
--
"I've tried programming Ruby on Rails, following TechCrunch in my RSS
reader, and drinking absinthe. It doesn't work. I'm going back to C,
Hunter S. Thompson, and cheap whiskey." -- Ted Dziuba
On Fri, Feb 27, 2009 at 11:58 PM, Zane H. Healy <healyzh at aracnet.com> wrote:
> At 11:54 PM -0500 2/27/09, John Floren wrote:
>>
>> The PDP-11 has RT-11 loaded already, so I look forward to playing with
>> that; when I get it home and can check exactly what the
>> processor/memory/disk values are, then do some research into whether
>> or not it would be possible to try RSTS/E or RSX-11M+ on it too.
>
> I really like RT-11. ?I don't follow the list like I used to (no time), what
> kind of a PDP-11 do you have?
>
> Zane
>
It's not so much what I have as what I will be soon inheriting from
the good folks over at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics; I'm not
sure of the exact model but it's a MicroPDP-11 of some type. Comes
with an RX02. More details when it actually gets decommissioned and I
pick it up.
John
--
"I've tried programming Ruby on Rails, following TechCrunch in my RSS
reader, and drinking absinthe. It doesn't work. I'm going back to C,
Hunter S. Thompson, and cheap whiskey." -- Ted Dziuba
On Fri, Feb 27, 2009 at 11:47 PM, Zane H. Healy <healyzh at aracnet.com> wrote:
> At 10:54 PM -0500 2/27/09, John Floren wrote:
>>
>> So, I've got both a VAXstation 4000-60 and an AlphaStation 250 here
>> and after playing with it for a bit I've decided I don't really care
>> for VMS so much that I want it on both of them. I'd like to find an
>> interesting, preferably AT&T-style UNIX to run on one of them, so I'm
>> hoping some of you can help me figure out my options. So far, I know I
>> can run:
>> -NetBSD
>> -Probably some DEC/HP UNIXes (Tru64 on the Alpha?).
>>
>> I'd really appreciate perspectives on these different systems,
>> user/admin experience, etc. I'm not looking to accomplish anything in
>> particular here, I just want something to play around with on my DEC
>> hardware while I wait for the PDP-11 :)
>
> UNIX is a waste of good DEC hardware! :-) ?DEC never sold a UNIX variant
> that would run on a VAXstation 4000/60. ?I think NetBSD and OpenBSD will
> both run on it. ?I'll confess that OpenBSD at least used to rock on Alpha
> and can handle a machine with less RAM than OpenVMS expects. ?Your choice of
> OS's are a lot wider for the Alpha.
>
> As for a PDP-11, I recommend RT-11, RSTS/E, or RSX-11M+, not UNIX.
>
> For UNIX get a Sun or SGI system, in other words cool hardware that only
> runs UNIX. ?I did buy a nice DECstation 5000/133 (a MIPS box) years ago to
> run NetBSD. ?I wonder what happened to that machine...
>
> Zane
>
The PDP-11 has RT-11 loaded already, so I look forward to playing with
that; when I get it home and can check exactly what the
processor/memory/disk values are, then do some research into whether
or not it would be possible to try RSTS/E or RSX-11M+ on it too.
John
--
"I've tried programming Ruby on Rails, following TechCrunch in my RSS
reader, and drinking absinthe. It doesn't work. I'm going back to C,
Hunter S. Thompson, and cheap whiskey." -- Ted Dziuba
Would anyone be interested in an original, complete copy of Windows
3.1 on 1.2MB 5?" floppies?
Just uncovered during a clearout...
--
Liam Proven ? Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/liamproven
Email: lproven at cix.co.uk ? GMail/GoogleTalk/Orkut: lproven at gmail.com
Tel: +44 20-8685-0498 ? Cell: +44 7939-087884 ? Fax: + 44 870-9151419
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MSN: lproven at hotmail.com ? ICQ: 73187508
