16 Sep
1997
16 Sep
'97
5:04 a.m.
You wrote...
I have just got a 'new' computer over the
weekend. It was advertised as
a MicroVAX II with 2xRA81, 8Mb, and tape drive.
It has VMS 5.x on one of the RA81s and Ultrix on the
other. It looks
like the picture in the Digital manuals of a MicroVAX II 630 (tall rack
unit with RA81 at top and bottom with the processor modules in between),
however it was only when I got it home that I saw the badge above the
On/Off switch which says "Digital PDP11/83".
<snip>
It's a MicroVAX II. MicroPDP's cannot boot or run VMS (that I know of) due
to a different CPU.
What's most likely happened is, somewhere along the line, somebody had a
PDP-11/83 in that box, then pulled out the CPU and memory cards and
replaced them with MicroVAX equivalents. You can easily do this, as the
box, power supply, and backplane are compatible with either CPU.
As an example: If I were to pull some spare 11/73 cards out of my stash,
and replace the MV-II boards in my VAXStation II/GPX with them, said
VAXStation would suddenly become an 11/73.
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Bruce Lane, Sysop, The Dragon's Cave BBS (Fidonet 1:343/272)
(Hamateur: WD6EOS) (E-mail: kyrrin2(a)wizards.net)
http://www.wizards.net/technoid
"Our science can only describe an object, event, or living thing in our own
human terms. It cannot, in any way, define any of them..."