VAXstation 3100 history (Was ... different)

--- CLASSICCMP(a)trailing-edge.com wrote: Ah... you needed the scripts I wrote eleven years ago... they would build a console TU58 with EXCHANGE and sling the files out to the tape in the right order. The benefit was that apparently the microprocessor in the TU58 (at least on the 11/730, don't know about the 11/750) would buffer the directory so that the only seeks were to *read* files, not to *locate* the files. Our 11/730 reboot time went from 18 minutes to under six with properly constructed tapes. It became a function of the serial line speed and tape velocity, not of random seek times on a 250-foot tape. You heard the drive go and go and go with occasional pauses at each new file. Every time I rebooted I was glad I'd taken an afternoon to automate the building process (which I had to re-do with every VMS major update). Boy... lots of VAX stuff flying the past few days. I'm going to have to fire something up and remind myself why I don't use 1980-vintage hardware on a daily basis. It was fun, but *damn* it was slow. I got a lot of reading done back in those days... seven hour offline backups, five hour upgrades... oh, yeah... the "good" old days. ;-) At least the stuff stayed up for more than ten minutes. Our record was 45 days between VAX reboots, but only because we were developing software and would have periods of several reboots per day to clear device drivers. Since then, I've seen uptimes on the cluster at Lucent measured in months. -ethan ===== Infinet has been sold. The domain is going away in February. Please send all replies to erd(a)iname.com __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Thousands of Stores. Millions of Products. All in one place. Yahoo! Shopping: http://shopping.yahoo.com