VAX-11/730

The 11/730 CPU is, IIRC, 3 hex-height boards, with another board for the Integrated Disk Cotnroller (IDC). Typically, they fitted into a 10.5" rackmount box, with slots for memory and a couple of Unibus devices, a PSU, and a TU58. The 11/730 loads its CPU microcode from a TU58 cartridge at power-on. The IDC supoorts the RL02 (AFAIK the RL01 is not supported, but I can't see how the hardware couldn't handle it), and the R80. The R80 is a 120-ish Meg Winchester with an interface which is just far enough from SMD to give SMD hackers headaches! The normal configurations seem to be : A rack containing the CPU _only_, with the TU58 cartridge tape drive under it, both drivs accessible from the front of the rack. You need a second rack for disks, etc. Actually, I've never seen that one. A rack containg the CPU box, with one TU58 cartridge on the front of the CPU and one round the side. The latter is the one it loads the microcode from, the idea being you leave the microcode tape in there, you don't really need to change it very often. Under the CPU box is an R80 Winchester, on top is an RL02 Much the same, but with a TS05 (Cipher F880) 9-track mag-tape drive in place of the RL02, and a TSU05 controller in one of the Unibus slots. Yes, Unibus only (I suppose you could add an RH11 Massbus interface, but it wouldn't handle the higher-speed Massbus devices). You should be able to add 3rd party Unibus controllers for SMD or SCSI (but the latter will be darn expensive). You could also add a UDA50 and hang some RA-series drives off it. There are 2 serial ports (Console and Remote Diagnostics) built into the CPU. You can add things like the DZ11 if you want more. You should be able to add a DEUNA or DELUA for ethernet. I am not sure how much spare capacity there is on the CPU power supply. You may well need an external BA11 mounting box for some of those boards. I am _still_ looking for the CPU board printset... I don't think it's on bitsavers. -tony