26 Feb
1999
26 Feb
'99
4:48 p.m.
Howdy, I've taken delivery on two MicroVax
II's, one is a model 630QY-A2
and the other is a 630QB-A2, the QY is basically a narrow cabinet and the
QB is a wide cabinet. Both have 8MB and both have ethernet controllers.
Both were stripped of drives although one still has a tape unit. (TK50?
How can I tell?)
Narrow cabinet vs. wide cabinet? Sounds like a BA23 vs. BA123 cabinet.
1) I'd like to find a disk or two for these (they
each have slots for
four disks of the DU type.) what do I need to look for? Are there size
limitations?
But with four slots, they both must be BA123 -- by the way, there should
be a total of 5 slots... four horizontal on the right side (with the top
one being the TK50), and one vertical on the left side for the RX50 (but
you can put an RX33 there as well).
What to look for? If you can get an MSCP controller (RQDX1, 2, 3), you'll
need RD series disks. Max of 159 MB. If you have a third-party
interface, probably much larger. I have a machine with 2GB DSSI disks,
and another machine with a 770 MB ESDI disk.
As for TK50, it has one large red switch on the right side and one small
green LED on the left. The TK70 has a smaller switch on the right side
and three LEDs.
2) Can these things be booted over the network in a
pinch? (one has no
tape drive)
Yes, so long as you have another machine set up to serve the files to
it.
2b) Do these things have boot roms that are interactive
ala ODT? Until I
get disks is there anyway to verify that they work?
Sure do... and with NVram, you can also establish default settings for
language and boot device.
3) Would it make sense to combine the memory cards so
that I have one
16MB VAX or should I leave it at two VAXen?
Depends on how many memory cards are in each machine. If that is 8MB
in two cards (4MB each), then no. You'll need larger capacity memory
cards. Max is 16MB in two cards (of 8 MB each).
4) One has a busextender unit that goes to a non-DEC
disk card labelled:
"Wombat" (its a disk controller of some sort) with tag WQESD 2.8M
SCD-RQD11/EC
*Very* nice... makes your deal quite a good one...
a) This is ESDI controller yes?
b) It has four data connectors so four drives?
c) Its in a different backplane UNIBUS perhaps? (quad height)
Different bus? If they are BA123s, there should only be one backplane
which is quad high...
Both machines internally appear to be in very good
shape. Anyone have the
"MicroVAX II 630 QB Technical Manual" ?
Yes... but I don't want to part with it... contact me off list.
All in all it wasn't a bad deal at $18 each.
Not at all...
Megan Gentry
Former RT-11 Developer
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