9 Apr
2007
9 Apr
'07
3:45 a.m.
Ethan Dicks wrote:
That's certainly close to the largest, if not the
absolute largest.
DEC took the XT2190 and formatted it at 154MB as the RD54. I have a
few in MicroVAXen. Much more solid than the RD53 (Micropolis 1325),
and no jumper moving required (there's a single solderable jumper that
must be installed to turn a generic 1325 into an RD53 so that the
customer-runnable formatter recognizes it).
Jerome Fine replies:
I always have a problem with DEC when I read about the
zero ohm resister that was actually used in place of
the jumper.
What was DEC's marketing policy? Add NOTHING!
What was DEC's hardware policy? Add NOTHING!
For marketing, DEC would buy a Micropolis 1325 for
about $ 500, add NOTHING (a zero to the price) and
re-sell as an RD53 for about $ 5000.
For hardware enhancements, DEC would buy a Micropolis 1325
and add NOTHING (a ZERO ohm resistor) and re-sell
as an RD53. DEC might have had Micropolis OEM the
drive even though the Micropolis name was still present.
Seagate used to do that with RZ type drives such as the
RZ28D-E which is just the ST32550N.
I seem to remember that DEC had a fix to slow the VAX 725
(at least one of the systems similar the the VAX 750).
Of course, Seagate did the same thing with their 20 MB
and 40 MB drives - removed a pin to prevent the arm
from accessing the other half of the drive (did not
install the pin actually with the 40 MB drives).
A hardware tech who serviced these drives told me how
they just removed the pin to double the capacity.
So DEC was certainly not unique. In point of fact,
I really miss the fantastic DEC Software. I wonder
what VMS would have been on an current Alpha?
PLEASE DO NOT REPLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sincerely yours,
Jerome Fine
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