10 Mar
2007
10 Mar
'07
7:53 p.m.
Ian Viemeister wrote:
Actually, you can max out the entire machine and run on a 220V + center
tap dryer plug. I know it can be done because I've done it.
Peace... Sridhar
On Fri, 9 Mar 2007, Ethan Dicks wrote:
Nope. It applies to the XMI bus in the VAX 6000 too. If you max out
CPU's you can't max out RAM.
If I remember correctly, one may stuff up to 6
CPUs on the XMI bus,
which is limited to a smallish number of total slots), but if one wants
to max out the memory and have other peripherals in there, it might not
be possible to have all 6 CPUs loaded.
Close... The bus you're describing there is the LSB bus, which can handle
up to 8 CPU or memory modules (1-6 CPUs, VAX or Alpha; 1-7 memory modules,
up to 3.5GB on VAX), and one dedicated slot for the IO module. The IO module connects to 1-4 XMI card cages which
handle Ethernet, DSSI
(VAX only), SCSI (Alpha only), CI, and a bridge to VAXBI.
Not only those, but on Alpha, you can hook to PCI and (IIRC) Futurebus+.
Interesting
stuff, if you want to run a VAX the size of a
refrigerator. The last one I saw in the wild was a few years ago, but
there are quite a few in hobbyist hands. Someone (here?) has
described how to run one off of either single-phase or US 220VAC, but
they shipped from DEC with 3-phase power, IIRC.
Well, they ship with a 3-phase input, but each of the three power
regulators is a simple single-phase load. If the machine isn't loaded
with extra cards and storage PIUs, it can be run from a single regulator.