< Quick question: what's a DEC DS200?  (I'm assuming it means DECstation
< 200, but I'm also guessing it's x86-based and has no relation to the
< larger MIPS-based systems).
the only thin I know by that part number is a DECserver200, a 8port
eithernet/LAT terminal server 68000 based.
< Another question: what would be a reasonable offer for a stripped
< DECsystem 5500?  The guy seems to want a (IMHO) ridiculous price for it
Unknown on price but those are fast systems in the MIPS lineup.  It's
also not that old (to be under the 10 year rule).
< near what he wanted!  From what I can tell the DS5500 would be not much
< more than a rare novelty (it IS a Qbus-based MIPS, after all), let alone
< competitor to modern servers.  (I don't think it was even that much fast
< than it's TC relatives.)
TC???  It was a fast machine when it was introduced. fast compared to
modern with PII/233s and the like is a unfair comparison.
< Also, is there a FAQ or something somewhere explaining common hardware?
DECs linup was huge so that would be a large list (the option module list
was several very thick volumes and listed everything DEC had a part number
for)
< I'd like explanation on the DECmate as well, but that seems like it woul
< be a FAQ by now.
crank up your web thingie and follow the PDP-8 trail.  The DECmate series
is a PDP-8 in CMOS clothing.  There are some BIG faq out there for that
one.
Look here:
Frequently Asked Questions about DEC PDP-8 models and options.
        By Douglas Jones, jones(a)cs.uiowa.edu
        (with help from many folks)
Sites known to carry reasonably current FTPable copies of this file:
        
ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/alt.sys.pdp8
        ftp://ftp.uu.net/usenet/news.answers/dec-faq
        ftp://src.doc.ic.ac.uk:/pub/usenet/news.answers/alt.sys.pdp8
Allison