Reviving old environments (was Re: Free VAX/Alpha hardware)

On Fri, Oct 9, 2009 at 3:34 PM, William Donzelli <wdonzelli at gmail.com> wrote: That's a "COMBOARD-I" - it has a 68000, a 32K field of 2114 SRAMs, a 6821 for the printer interface, and a COM5025 USART to talk to IBM or other bisync gear via HASP or 3780. The design was based on SRC's older HASPBOX product, 100% DEC hardware with 100% SRC software. There's DEC host software for it for RSX-11, RSTS, VMS, 4BSD, System V, and Ultrix. When it was new, it sold for $2500 as a hardware spare, or over $10000 with a software license. The pricing model was based on the exact model number (kept in the ROMs along with an electronic serial number - I burned many, many ROMs over the years)... the 631 was the least expensive, the 1231 the most. I was never in sales, but ISTR a 1231 card with a software license might have been as much as $25000. It certainly was no cheaper than $12500. I myself have a couple of tubs of those in various states - it's a nice board for what it does, but I say that as one of the last people who remembers how to repair them and develop for them (and as the legal owner of the IP). I wouldn't want to see it discarded, but it's the Qbus model that I'm really searching for. -ethan