I have the following equpment free for pick up. All or nothing deal.
Wrentham, MA. It's going to the scrapper next Wednesday.
two VAX 4000-100
two AlphaServer 400 4/233 complete and working when I shut them down a
few years ago
two VT520
one VR160
MicroVAX 3100
BA42A storage expansion
BA360 with 4 drives
MicroVAX I, I believe complete, I never powered it up
MicroVAX II box/power supply/backplane only, no drives or boards
Joe Heck
Zane H. Healy & Ethan Dicks wrote:
Snip
...
>> This reminds me that I still need to take some time to image my
>> MicroVMS distro floppies. I'm sure they aren't unique, but I'm not
>> sure where I'd get uVMS from the 'net (and ISTR, there are no versions
>> of full VMS that fit on an RD51 or RD52).
> This is something I for one would like to see preserved. I have a
> VAXstation II/RC that ran MicroVMS.
To clarify about VMS / MicroVMS versions I've looked into some VMS V4.x tapes and found out the following:
Version Type Date written MicroVAX support
V4.0 Full 23-SEP-1984 NO
V4.1 Update <missing> ??
V4.2 Full 12-JUL-1985 NO
V4.3 Update 9-JAN-1986 VMS043.A-COMMON FILES / VMS043.B-VMS ONLY / Saveset VMS043.C-UVMS ONLY
V4.4 Full 30-MAR-1986 YES (integral part of all Savesets)
V4.5 Update 26-SEP-1986 same as with V4.3 (individual Savesets)
V4.6 Full 15-JUN-1987 same as with V4.4 (integral part of all Savesets)
V4.7 Update 29-OCT-1987 same as with V4.3 (individual Savesets)
That seems to me a rather good proof that MicroVMS versions are (at least from V4.3 onwards) functionally equal
(to the extend possible on MicroVAXen) to the corresponding VMS versions.
Distribution tapes were identical, whereas the RX50 floppy sets most probably were not (as to save space/floppies).
I'm still looking for the following versions:
- MicroVMS V1.0 ( = MicroVMS V4.0 ???)
- MicroVMS V4.0
- MicroVMS V4.1
- MicroVMS V4.2
- VMS V4.1
- VMS V4.2 MUP (Mandatory Update)
- VMS 4.3A
- VMS 4.5A
- VMS 4.5B
- VMS 4.5C
- VMS 4.6A
- VMS 4.6B
- VMS 4.6C
- VMS 4.7A
Can anybody help ???
All other versions are available to anyone who wants them.
Regards
Ulli
P.S.
My MicroVAX I runs MicroVMS V4.4,
my two MicroVAX IIs run a VMS V4.6 LAVC together with two VAXstations 2000
Who else has got MicroVAX Is or at least parts to build one???
I'm currently scanning EK-KD32A-OM-002 MicroVAX I Owner's Manual for me & bitsavers.org.
On Fri, Oct 9, 2009 at 2:01 PM, Zane H. Healy <healyzh at aracnet.com> wrote:
> On Fri, 9 Oct 2009, Ethan Dicks wrote:
>
>> On that box in particular, I should really get around to imaging the
>> drive - it has hardware diagnostics already set-up to test Qbus
>> COMBOARDs (the diagnostics themselves are backed up 3 ways, but not in
>> a working environment).
>
> Well... ?Get to work! ?:-)
What? Do you have a Qbus COMBOARD? ;-)
I think one list member ever has piped up that they found a COMBOARD
in a rescued system - we sold a few thousand Unibus "COMBOARD I"
(HASP/3780) boards over 12 years or so, a much smaller number of
Unibus "COMBOARD II" (SNA), and an even smaller number of Qbus
COMBOARDs (HASP/3780/SNA), and by comparison, a microscopic number of
VAXBI COMBOARDs (HASP/3780).
If anyone still cared about setting up sync links between VAXen and
IBMs, I'd have more motivation to work on these sorts of projects, but
since I never have gotten the DWBUA working on my 8200 after it moved
to my house, I don't really have a ready-to-use environment for
testing our old Unibus products (of which I still have a couple tubs).
Qbus is easy, as is VAXBI.
It was a great product for the 1980s, but I don't really hear any buzz
about sync serial comms anymore.
-ethan
On Fri, Oct 9, 2009 at 11:40 AM, H?lscher
<hoelscher-kirchbrak at freenet.de> wrote:
> To clarify about VMS / MicroVMS versions...
>
> That seems to me a rather good proof that MicroVMS versions are (at least from V4.3 onwards) functionally equal
> (to the extend possible on MicroVAXen) to the corresponding VMS versions.
That sounds right from what I remember. After that point, it became a
memory/disk space issue, not an architectural issue. I don't recall
when uVAX-I support was dropped, but I don't think VMS 6.0 is
supported on an RD54 (though it _can_ be mostly wedged in there).
> I'm still looking for the following versions:
>
> - MicroVMS V1.0 ( = MicroVMS V4.0 ???)
I _think_ that might be the case.
> - MicroVMS V4.0
> - MicroVMS V4.1
> - MicroVMS V4.2
>
> - VMS V4.1
> - VMS V4.2 MUP (Mandatory Update)
> - VMS 4.3A
> - VMS 4.5A
> - VMS 4.5B
> - VMS 4.5C
> - VMS 4.6A
> - VMS 4.6B
> - VMS 4.6C
> - VMS 4.7A
>
> Can anybody help ???
I have many of the earlier ones of those, on original media, though I
can't guarantee what will read and verify from 20-year-old media. I
will certainly give it an attempt.
We had an 11/750 on software support from their initial release in
1983 through 1993, MicroVAXen from their release in 1984 through 1993,
and an 11/730 that probably used the same media as the 11/750, IIRC.
Some of our MicroVAX stuff was on RX50; some on TK50. We ran (u)VMS
and Ultrix. I was able to save about 80%-90% of the distro media when
the company closed (some of the earlier stuff may have been recycled
since TU58s and RX50s were considered "expensive" and "why would we
ever want that old stuff anyway). I do have a pile of DEC distro
floppies for the Pro series that turned into backup and transfer
floppies, so are decorative, but not functional now. :-/
Since I recently went through the exercise of creating a Compaq
utilities disk for my Portable II, I'm in better shape to archive
RX50s. I'll have to dig out my TSZ07 to image install tapes.
I will not get to any of this before Thanksgiving, so please don't
ask, but feel free to rattle my cage (offlist, please) if it's January
and I haven't made a peep.
If you need it sooner, I can't imagine that I'm the only person in the
world who still has 15-25-year-old backup media - someone must have
much of this stuff spun up somewhere (though I can undertstand not
wanting to make it available all the time to random passers-by).
-ethan
On Thu, Oct 8, 2009 at 5:15 PM, Rob Jarratt <robert.jarratt at ntlworld.com> wrote:
> No rush, I don't have an RX50 at the moment in any case.
On your MicroVAX? TK50 only?
-ethan
Does anyone recognize the vendor logo on this FD1771 chip.
http://www.swtpc.com/mholley/DC_2/DC2_Photo.JPG
I have some National Semiconductor and SMC 1771s. I am looking for an early
Western Digital logo.
Michael Holley
On Thu, Oct 8, 2009 at 4:03 PM, Rob Jarratt <robert.jarratt at ntlworld.com> wrote:
> If you ever image the floppies I would love to get a copy, even though I am
> not sure how I would get them to install on my MVII. Could you let us know
> if and when you do this?
These are original distro floppies from the late 1980s. I'm honestly
not expecting 100% success on reading them, but fortunately, the
content is far from unique.
As to how you might use them - I'd expect that you'd need a stack of
RX50-formatted 5.25" floppies and the disk image files and an
Intel-based PC running Linux (or perhaps Windows) to apply the image
files to the physical media. Armed with a stack of floppies, you'd
install VMS the way we did it in the old days - spending an afternoon
feeding floppies to SABACKUP.
I have many other things on my plate, so I wouldn't expect to get to
this before the Holidays.
-ethan
Alright. I, luckily, this time, happen to live about 5 miles away from this
generous offer. I'm picking up the entire lot. If anyone needs something
specific - hardware/manuals/software, email me and when I go through
everything I'll do what I can.
--keith
www.decroded.com
I would like to acquire a "local pickup only" item in
Richmond, Texas. If someone could help pack and ship
an item (a little bigger than a 13 inch TV) please let
me know.
Thanks,
Bill Sudbrink
On Thu, Oct 8, 2009 at 10:08 AM, Zane H. Healy <healyzh at aracnet.com> wrote:
> Is there anyone close by that can rescue this and the doc's?
Not me. Too far.
>?This stuff is for the most part worth rescuing. ? ?The MicroVAX I and II can be converted
> into a PDP-11 if so desired.
I was going to do that myself, but I recently came into a fully
working original-model (KDF11) MicroPDP-11, so I'm going to focus on
that now (it has 2x MSV11PK for 512K of memory, an RQDX1, and an RD51
(10MB) - at least until I pull some newer cards/disks off the shelf).
> ?I think MicroVAX I's are moderately rare.
> ?Though since this is in MA, they might not be back there.
They were uncommon but not unknown here in Ohio... I got one from a
former employer, and another that was DEC-upgraded to a MicroVAX-II
(for something like $17,000) when those were new. Since then, though,
I've only ever run across one other. Lots of MicroVAX-IIs.
This reminds me that I still need to take some time to image my
MicroVMS distro floppies. I'm sure they aren't unique, but I'm not
sure where I'd get uVMS from the 'net (and ISTR, there are no versions
of full VMS that fit on an RD51 or RD52).
-ethan