19 Sep
2001
19 Sep
'01
10:04 p.m.
jkunz(a)unixag-kl.fh-kl.de wrote:
There is the 8600 (aka 11/790) listed as a SBI machine.
That's correct. It was going to be known
as the VAX-11/790 until someone changed
their mind (it was very late, so they had
plenty of time to play with the name!).
There is no reference to the 8700.
The VAX 8700 is a single processor VAX 8800.
The 8800 is listed as:
Basically an 8550 processor in a bigger box with space for
additional
processors to make it into an 8820 or 8840
No. The Nautilus family started out as the
single processor VAX 8700 which could have
a few more (or many more, I forget) cards
added to become the dual processor VAX 8800.
The VAX 8550 was a VAX 8700 in a (big) cab
that could *not* be upgraded to a VAX 8800.
The VAX 8500 was a VAX 8550 with microcode
deliberately slugged to slow it down.
This was soon followed by a microcode update
that removed the NOPs ... *all* 8500s were
supposed to be upgraded and the machine
was renamed the VAX 8530.
The processor(s) live(d) on the NMI bus
(Nautilus Memory Interconnect, I assume).
The I/O bus was the VAXBI. This is in
contrast to the VAX 8200/8300 which came
out at the same time and used the
VAXBI as their system bus as well as
teh I/O bus.
The 8550 is listed:
XMI processor/memory backplane with VAXBI I/O
XMI is wrong ... it's NMI. The VAX 6000 series
was the first family (IIRC) to use the XMI.
So I assume the "base" machine is the 8550.
In a biger chasiss it is
named 8700 and with a second CPU the 8700 is called 8800?
Yes, that's a good summary but
don't forget the runt of the litter,
the VAX 8500 (which rapidly became the
VAX 8530).
Antonio