IBM 4381

Hello all, I have the opportunity to save an IBM 4381 with lots of disks and tapes; it is currently running VM ESA 2.1 and also has two 8232 Ethernet units. With a friend we would like to acquire it and put it on Internet with free accounts to requesters. As you probably know this machine is quite big so I started lobbying my University for space, that would also get power supply and 34Mbit internet connection ;-). The size it prohibitively big for a a single hobbyist but also in the campus floor space it is not free; I must come up with a minimum space requirement for a working system. I don't have any in field experience with IBM mainframe internals and have considered this configuration - CPU one processor - 3420 tape - 8232 Ethernet controller - 3990 control Unit - 1 disk string (3 disks or less but need work on the cabinet to separate the disk subsystems) My questions are: - not planning to use SNA or 3270, at least initially, do we need to set up the 3745 FEP? - is the above configuration reasonable for a minimum system? - tightly packing all the devices to fit in a 15 square meter room will cause heating or other problems? - how may would be interested in accessing the machine? - anybody willing to offer knowledge? IBM was not very helpfully to put it kindly. If you are interested in some way please email me at save4381(a)softstar.it. I have set up this specific account in order to collect, hopefully, lots of emails telling to save the machine. I will pass them to the person responsible for the floor space trying to convince him that we MUST do it. Cheers e. ======================================================================== Enrico Badella email: enrico.badella(a)softstar.it Soft*Star srl eb(a)vax.cnuce.cnr.it InterNetworking Specialists tel: +39-011-746092 Via Camburzano 9 fax: +39-011-746487 10143 Torino, Italy Wanted, for hobbyist use, any type of PDP and microVAX hardware,software, manuals,schematics,etc. and DEC-10 docs or manuals ==========================================================================