2 Jul
1999
2 Jul
'99
7:45 a.m.
Unfortunately, the presence of the PC with its
virtually plug-and-play
(chuckle) readily available boards and the MAC with it's even less difficult
to set up peripherals, have led the world to believe that devices should
just naturally play together.
Anyone who's worked with DEC equipment knows that isn't true. Once upon a
time, I worked for a DEC-addicted client whose system required redundant
PDP11-44's. The DEC folks would deliver the hardware on one day, set up the
first rack the second day, get the basic hardware to run on the third, and
then one or two days at a time, get the rest to work together. Then there
was the second rack . . .
Geez. Someone did something VERY wrong. I used to drop identical
DEC boxes in at AT&T and the various telcos without ever finding
anything different in 'em. They were identical down to the dip
switches (and the head leads in the RK05's being reversed in the second
drive so the operators couldn't interchange the packs in the machines).
Some of the systems were SARTS (11/34A's) -- later Vax systems,
COSMOS (11/70's with third party comm gear), SCAMOS, etc.
It all depends on how the machines were spec'd and ordered.
DEC used to charge considerable money to meet the Bell System standard.
I tend to think someone didn't do their homework on the ordering
or spec.
(I also think you had Vax-only techs working on PDP's. Was this perhaps
after the year 1984? I think DEC's field service tech quality began to
fall down seriously after that point. They began to think that all
you need to do is swap boards and you didn't have to hire folks who
could understand how machines worked.)
Bell supplied full system docs including dip switches, special cable
pin-outs (where required), special cabinet specs. etc...
Now, even though the two machines had been
specifically ordered to be
"identical in every way" at a considerable premium, it was not unusual for
the DEC folks to have to swap each rack in its entirety several times before
they actually had two from which you could extract a board and exchange it
with the corresponding board in the other and not have both machines fall
apart. Usually, while this was happening, the other 30 or so of us were in
day-for-day schedule slip.
I think someone was bull@#$R%&^Y on the special order and just took
delivery on similar configurations due to time constraints then.
The only time I've seen stuff come in misconfigured like you describe
was on some military inteligence stuff (Bill, we can't tell you where this
is going) but I pulled the installation paperwork the product line docs
said military intelligence.
This was about 15 years ago...
Where it's going is a secret (but they were shipping to Colorado).
My guess was Cheyenne Mountain (or something like that).
It was a dual mirrored 11/70 system in special tempest systems cabinets
and required riggers to move it. It would normally take 1 week to 10
days to shake out the configuration.
They allotted 7 total days in their schedule for install and for
tempest testing.
Half of it didn't work after they shipped it to me. The CSS (Computer
Special Systems guys) had special bus switches, cables and diags).
It was too hot in the facility to run the machine more than a couple of hours
in the testing facility due to the 85+ degree heat.
They were supposed to run the full system pair mirrored and test.
We barely got one RP06 and system up and on line -- but they had to ship
anyway.
This was my worst experience with military DEC hardware -- I was DEC's
guy at Fort Monmouth, NJ for five years and a government contractor
at the Fort on DEC and other hardware for about 5 more.
I will never say anything good about the government contractor
involved in this project (there's a town in Georgia with the same name as
the company now merged company).
Dick
Bill
(an Ex-DEC tech who left them in 1986)