10 Jan
2004
10 Jan
'04
10:15 a.m.
Hi, Joe,
*********** REPLY SEPARATOR ***********
On 09-Jan-04 at 18:46 Joe wrote:
I picked up two of these yesterday. I searched the net
but didn't find
much information about them but I did find enough so that I know what they
are. However one of the ones that I have doesn't have the rounded top.
Instead the top is flat and it has a rectangular opening in it and a
circuit board sticking up into the opening. It looks like it was made for
an expansion chassis to mate with. Anybody know more about that?
Yes indeed. I used to service the 'PowerStack' VME version systems.
What you have there is one of two possible configurations. One system type was made with
a PowerPC 603 chip, if I recall, and the other was done with a VMEbus, designed to run
with MVME187 or 197 CPU boards.
The expansion configuration you describe is exactly that. The PowerStack series were
expanded by popping off the cover, and locking in another module. I think you could have
at least four, possibly a max of six (it has been at least 11 years since I've seen
one). They use SCSI exclusively for peripheral expansion. No Idiotic Drive Electronics in
these monsters!
OS-wise, they were both designed to run with Motorola's System V Unix release. I
don't recall if other OS's will run on them.
That's all I remember. Perhaps others will pipe up with corrections or additions.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Bruce Lane, Owner & Head Hardware Heavy,
Blue Feather Technologies -- http://www.bluefeathertech.com
kyrrin (at) bluefeathertech do/t c=o=m
"If Salvador Dali had owned a computer, would it have been equipped with surreal
ports?"