1 May
2005
1 May
'05
12:24 a.m.
Today at a local municipal auction I got an exciting new find:
An H-P Apollo Series 735 Workstation.
I blew it, in part, because all I got was the main system, an external
SCSI drive array (six differential SCSI drives in an HP box, with
wide-diff cable) and the external CDROM. Somebody else got the big
monitor (the main system has three BNC out video) and I never saw the
keyboard, but it was probably there. I only spied the system in the
mess of PC clones being sold as it came up for bid so I had to buy it in
a group with six other Intel boxes for $5. Shortly thereafter, and
before I noticed it, the monitor for it (marked HP, row of BNC
connectors on back, etc.) went for $1 to somebody else. SERIOUS
headslapping incident. The part that really bugs me is it likely went
to someone seeing 'big screen' and expecting a VGA connector on back.
The system has a single narrow SCSI drive inside, about half the memory
slots are populated. It looks like it was connected to the external
CDROM drive (a matching HP case drive that I *happened* to get in an
additional box lot) on the narrow SCSI connector, and the wide
differential SCSI cable was still attached to the big box that has six
additional drives in it.
I have a few questions for anybody on the list who has more experience
with Apollo workstations:
Will I be able to use this system over a serial console? I'm hoping it
will 'just come up' with whatever system is on the hard drive, though I
probably won't get past a login prompt. This is the main way I use my
Sun boxes (serial console). Will it just sense the lack of a keyboard
and bring up serial port A?
What OS did a system of this vintage run? By looking at chip markings,
etc, it appears to be about a 1990 vintage system.
I'm really upset with myself that I wasn't more 'on the ball' with this
system. I know I saw the video cable (triple BNC) go away to somebody
else in another box they got really cheap, I saw the monitor there and
know it went for a dollar, and judging by the completeness of parts of
the system that I saw in boxes and the parts that I (thankfully) got, I
am fairly certain there was probably an HP keyboard in the mess, too.
I could have gotten a complete system here, and now I'm going to have to
settle for serial console for the time being, if that's even possible.
Anyhow, it's a cool 'tall narrow' tower system to add to my collection
and it's beautifully high quality construction. I just wish I had it
all.
-Scott