17 Oct
2000
17 Oct
'00
2:41 p.m.
I just got my VS3100 and it has no drive (I expected that). It has a part
number of PM20A-AB. It has ~16M of RAM, a Video ram sim and nothing else.
What do I have? What RAM can this beast take? How large a drive can it take?
The only other marking are BA42A and CPU KN01.
Thanks
PS
This beast will be the drives for my Microvax ii until I get an IDE
card in it.
--
Linux Home Automation Neil Cherry ncherry(a)home.net
http://members.home.net/ncherry (Text only)
http://meltingpot.fortunecity.com/lightsey/52 (Graphics)
http://linuxha.sourceforge.net/ (SourceForge)
17 Oct
17 Oct
3:34 p.m.
What I was told when I did this was that drives bigger than 1gb won't work
properly due to firmware limitations. I chose a 1gb IBM drive (if memory
serves) and loaded the latest version of VMS from the hobbiest CD, which is
much less picky about drive firmware than previous versions. It works fine.
I just got my VS3100 and it has no drive (I expected that). It has a part
number of PM20A-AB. It has ~16M of RAM, a Video ram sim and nothing else.
What do I have? What RAM can this beast take? How large a drive can it take?
The only other marking are BA42A and CPU KN01.
Thanks
PS
This beast will be the drives for my Microvax ii until I get an IDE
card in it.
--
Linux Home Automation Neil Cherry ncherry(a)home.net
http://members.home.net/ncherry (Text only)
http://meltingpot.fortunecity.com/lightsey/52 (Graphics)
http://linuxha.sourceforge.net/ (SourceForge)
--
Jim Strickland
jim(a)DIESPAMMERSCUMcalico.litterbox.com
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7:18 p.m.
Hmmm.. KN01 is a DECstation (MIPs processor), not a VAXstation
(VAX processor)... Is there a NetBSD port that will run on this
box I wonder... The video SIMM is another clue (for those of you
keeping score)...
clint
On Tue, 17 Oct 2000, Neil Cherry wrote:
I just got my VS3100 and it has no drive (I expected
that). It has a part
number of PM20A-AB. It has ~16M of RAM, a Video ram sim and nothing else.
What do I have? What RAM can this beast take? How large a drive can it take?
The only other marking are BA42A and CPU KN01.
Thanks
PS
This beast will be the drives for my Microvax ii until I get an IDE
card in it.
--
Linux Home Automation Neil Cherry ncherry(a)home.net
http://members.home.net/ncherry (Text only)
http://meltingpot.fortunecity.com/lightsey/52 (Graphics)
http://linuxha.sourceforge.net/ (SourceForge)
7:58 p.m.
"Clint Wolff (VAX collector)" wrote:
Hmmm.. KN01 is a DECstation (MIPs processor), not a VAXstation
(VAX processor)... Is there a NetBSD port that will run on this
box I wonder... The video SIMM is another clue (for those of you
keeping score)...
clint
Oh oh, is there going to be a problem with this? You are right it's a
DECStation (I wanted a Vax Station)!
So now I'm really confused as to what I have.
--
Linux Home Automation Neil Cherry ncherry(a)home.net
http://members.home.net/ncherry (Text only)
http://meltingpot.fortunecity.com/lightsey/52 (Graphics)
http://linuxha.sourceforge.net/ (SourceForge)
8:27 p.m.
Decstations were Ultrix-only machines based around the MIPS archetecture. They
were considerably faster than comparably priced vaxen (if memory serves) and
made fine workstations and light fileservers. But no, it won't run VMS.
"Clint Wolff (VAX collector)" wrote:
--
Jim Strickland
jim(a)DIESPAMMERSCUMcalico.litterbox.com
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
BeOS Powered!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Hmmm.. KN01 is a DECstation (MIPs processor), not a VAXstation
(VAX processor)... Is there a NetBSD port that will run on this
box I wonder... The video SIMM is another clue (for those of you
keeping score)...
clint
Oh oh, is there going to be a problem with this? You are right it's a
DECStation (I wanted a Vax Station)!
So now I'm really confused as to what I have.
--
Linux Home Automation Neil Cherry ncherry(a)home.net
http://members.home.net/ncherry (Text only)
http://meltingpot.fortunecity.com/lightsey/52 (Graphics)
http://linuxha.sourceforge.net/ (SourceForge)
9:08 p.m.
Jim Strickland wrote:
Decstations were Ultrix-only machines based around the MIPS archetecture. They
were considerably faster than comparably priced vaxen (if memory serves) and
made fine workstations and light fileservers. But no, it won't run VMS.
According to message I found during a web search, I may have purchased a
lemon. It states that the machine won't boot without a keyboard and mouse.
Well I don't have any. I'll have to hunt them down and then load *BSD.
--
Linux Home Automation Neil Cherry ncherry(a)home.net
http://members.home.net/ncherry (Text only)
http://meltingpot.fortunecity.com/lightsey/52 (Graphics)
http://linuxha.sourceforge.net/ (SourceForge)
18 Oct
18 Oct
8:53 a.m.
According to message I found during a web search, I may
have purchased a
lemon. It states that the machine won't boot without a keyboard and mouse.
Well I don't have any. I'll have to hunt them down and then load *BSD.
No idea on mice, but I still have some LK201 and LK401 DEC keyboards.
21 Oct
21 Oct
5:45 p.m.
Mike Ford wrote:
No idea on mice, but I still have some LK201 and LK401
DEC keyboards.
Jerome Fine replies:
Do you also have some MMJ female connectors (H8575-A), and MMJ male
connectors (H8571-F)? I will try to roll my own, but if it does not work,
I would appreciate a second source.
Sincerely yours,
Jerome Fine
18 Oct
18 Oct
10:16 a.m.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Neil Cherry" <ncherry(a)home.net>
To: <classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org>
Sent: Wednesday, October 18, 2000 2:08 AM
Subject: Re: Vax Station 3100
You may have read about the insidious mouse port dependency on these
machines :)
These systems must have either a mouse or a "mouse port terminator"
installed on
them to boot NetBSD (and others, perhaps) from the graphics console. I think
more
information on them can be found on the NetBSD/pmax Web site, or you could
also
probably look it up by typing something like "DECstation 3100 mouse
terminator"
into your favorite search engine.
I'm not sure if its a problem if you boot the system off a serial console
(which, incidentially,
you can do; just hook up a terminal to the port with the printer icon next
to it and flip the
little DIP switch S3 on the back of the system - then you don't even need a
mouse,
keyboard, or monitor). Unfortunately, unless you have a MMJ terminal
(VT3/400 series)
you'll need to either buy or build a converter to break out MMJ to something
more
useful. The only problem is that (out here, at least), MMJ plugs are just
about impossible
to find and the converters (MMJ->DB25) cost $25 from DEC. Ouch!
Don't get rid of it though! These are great little machines for light
network serving using
something like NetBSD (which runs on them well;
http://www.netbsd.org/Ports/pmax).
I've got one in my basement with 24Mb RAM, color framebuffer to a VR290
monitor,
and RZ23 and RZ24 hard disks in it. It works like a charm!
--Sean Caron (root(a)diablonet.net) | http://www.diablonet.net
Jim Strickland wrote:
>
> Decstations were Ultrix-only machines based around the MIPS
archetecture.
They
> were considerably faster than comparably priced
vaxen (if memory serves)
and
made fine
workstations and light fileservers. But no, it won't run VMS.
According to message I found during a web search, I may have purchased a
lemon. It states that the machine won't boot without a keyboard and mouse.
Well I don't have any. I'll have to hunt them down and then load *BSD.
--
Linux Home Automation Neil Cherry ncherry(a)home.net
http://members.home.net/ncherry (Text only)
http://meltingpot.fortunecity.com/lightsey/52 (Graphics)
http://linuxha.sourceforge.net/ (SourceForge)
10:38 a.m.
Sean Caron wrote:
From: "Neil Cherry" <ncherry(a)home.net>
> According to message I found during a web search,
I may have purchased a
> lemon. It states that the machine won't boot without a keyboard and mouse.
> Well I don't have any. I'll have to hunt them down and then load *BSD.
You may have read about the insidious mouse port
dependency on these
machines :)
These systems must have either a mouse or a "mouse port terminator"
installed on
them to boot NetBSD (and others, perhaps) from the graphics console. I think
more
information on them can be found on the NetBSD/pmax Web site, or you could
also
probably look it up by typing something like "DECstation 3100 mouse
terminator"
into your favorite search engine.
I'm not sure if its a problem if you boot the system off a serial console
(which, incidentially,
you can do; just hook up a terminal to the port with the printer icon next
to it and flip the
little DIP switch S3 on the back of the system - then you don't even need a
mouse,
keyboard, or monitor). Unfortunately, unless you have a MMJ terminal
(VT3/400 series)
you'll need to either buy or build a converter to break out MMJ to something
more
useful. The only problem is that (out here, at least), MMJ plugs are just
about impossible
to find and the converters (MMJ->DB25) cost $25 from DEC. Ouch!
2 ways around that problem, minor surgery (exacto blade) or major surgery
(remove MMJ and solder in appropriate 6 pin RJ outlet). I think I'll
start with the exacto first. Actually there is a 3rd method I'll try first
and that is the exacto the RJ11 plug so it no longer has the tab on it.
--
Linux Home Automation Neil Cherry ncherry(a)home.net
http://members.home.net/ncherry (Text only)
http://meltingpot.fortunecity.com/lightsey/52 (Graphics)
http://linuxha.sourceforge.net/ (SourceForge)
11:46 a.m.
2 ways around that problem, minor surgery (exacto
blade) or major surgery
(remove MMJ and solder in appropriate 6 pin RJ outlet). I think I'll
start with the exacto first. Actually there is a 3rd method I'll try first
and that is the exacto the RJ11 plug so it no longer has the tab on it.
--
Linux Home Automation Neil Cherry ncherry(a)home.net
http://members.home.net/ncherry (Text only)
http://meltingpot.fortunecity.com/lightsey/52 (Graphics)
http://linuxha.sourceforge.net/ (SourceForge)
Actually you can get MMJ crimpers and MMJ cables pretty cheap...
Check altex electronics http;//www.altex.com (I think)...
--
bpechter(a)monmouth.com | FreeBSD since 1.0.2, Linux since 0.99.10
| Unix Sys Admin since Sys V/BSD 4.2
| Windows System Administration: "Magical Misery Tour
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days inactive
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days old
10 comments
7 participants
participants (7)
-
jhfine＠idirect.com -
jim＠calico.litterbox.com -
mikeford＠socal.rr.com -
ncherry＠home.net -
pechter＠pechter.dyndns.org -
sean＠techcare.com -
vaxman＠uswest.net