A digital MicroVax 3600 and its requisite heap of media has recently been trashed by the
physics department at Drexel University.
It is sitting in the hallway of the 7th floor of Disque Hall (building 12) at 3141
Chestnut Street in Philadelphia.
The machine is intact, and according to someone I asked, it powered up and worked fine
when tested 3 months ago.
The machine includes an enormous pile of backup tapes, both spool and cartridge type. (the
MicroVax 3600 has the RA-82 and TK-70 drives needed to read both types of media
installed)
The machine is the size of a narrow but tall washing-machine, and probably weighs around
300 pounds. Bring a Van or Minivan with the seats taken out! Also, the closest parking
spaces are on the other side of chestnut street, (the nice little lot in front of disque
has a gate blocking entry), so a small equipment cart would be helpful too. (I may be able
to borrow one from one of the labs, so contact me!)
Also included is a large pile of Tape backups and spool backups from 1987 through 1991 at
least, which *MIGHT* contain some previously-thought-lost VAX-related programs (maybe the
lost source code to the final version of ROGUE, or the missing parts of early UNIX
sourcecode, perhaps... though I'm really just dreaming there.)
I'm hoping whoever takes the machine takes the tapes as well (and shares anything
interesting on them) but just rescuing the machine from imminent doom would be a major
boon.
I would take the machine myself, but I don't have the means to transport it and I
don't have the space to store it.
According to someone I asked, the machine is scheduled for disposal sometime either later
this week or next week, so get it QUICK!
If you need assistance moving the machine or dealing with Drexel security, email me at
jzg22 @t drexel d0t edu
(@t = @, d0t = .)
Jonathan Gevaryahu
lord_nightmare @t users d0t sf d0t net
jzg22 @t drexel d0t edu
P.S. Al Kossow: I'm sorry I never got back to you in february about the votrax manual,
my life's been pretty hectic over the last 6 months. I'll email you over the
weekend.