gauging interest in VAX 6000-530

Figure about 1992-93 for that model. I used to have accounts on one when I was at DEC. <Looks like the 6500 was about 13 VAX-11/780 MIPS. That would make it abou <2x to 3x slower than a 486DX2/66. Not even close. More like a stack of a dozen or more of the 486s. It usually ran between 30-50 VT1200 Xwindows type terminals under VMS 5.5 plus the usual batch load and plain terminal user base. I doubt a 486dx/66 running linux could support 50-100 50 users running web browsers that smoothly while providing print services to 4-6 laser printers. Since the group had some 486dx/50s we could compare. The 486 was slower for any IO despite the SCSI, could not multitask well and was known for crashing (w3.11) something uncommon the VAX world. Apples and oranges, the VAX especially the bigger models with the CI and other high perf IO busses can easily pound PCI pentiums into the ground for shear load. A 6000-530 is 40" corperate cabs typically 3-4 of them more depending on the disks. Compared to a 780 its small. Compared to a 3100 it's huge. You would need a 16ft truck, lift gate or ramps. Power, basic system will run off a wall outlet barely if modded for single phase. OS, ultrix a BSD derivitive some like it, some hate it, it runs. VMS is the other OS commonly run and current (V7.2) is avaiable under hobbiest license and supports the SMP. Allison