23 Aug
2001
23 Aug
'01
12:49 a.m.
Hey Group --
Recently a post apperaed here wherein someone was wanting to give away a VAX
11/750.
Since I like free stuff :>) but have no experience outside of microcomputers,
I did a Google search, and this looks like an interesting machine, and a good
intro to minis for a micro person. Especially appealing is the number of
operating systems which it will run, and the variety of programming languages
available for it.
I have a spare room at the shop, so space is not a problem. I'd like to save
this machine, but I have a couple of questions:
It looks ablout 3.5 feet tall, and the specs put it at 180+ kilograms. How
can it weigh that much? What's in it, lead? (yes, I know solder has lead in
it , , ,)
How much does the tape unit weigh? Another 180 kilos??
What is the total power consumption for the 11/750 and the tape unit?
Am I crazy for wanting to rescue this critter, since I don't know the first
thing about it? I'll probably break my back moving it and spend the next 10
years learning how to use it and collecting disability benefits at the same
time.
TIA,
Glen
0/0
23 Aug
23 Aug
1:20 a.m.
At 01:49 AM 8/23/01 -0400, Glen wrote:
Hey Group --
Recently a post apperaed here wherein someone was wanting to give away a VAX
11/750.
This would be a nice machine to save since it has an array processor
(making it both a minicomputer and a wannabe supercomputer :-)
It looks ablout 3.5 feet tall, and the specs put it at 180+ kilograms. How
can it weigh that much? What's in it, lead? (yes,
I know solder has lead in
it , , ,)
Yes, it can and does weigh that much. It has a lot of steel in it, steel
weighs 500 lbs per cubic foot.
How much does the tape unit weigh? Another 180 kilos??
Not quite, probably less than 150Kg
What is the total power consumption for the 11/750 and
the tape unit?
You can run them on one wall outlet.
Am I crazy for wanting to rescue this critter, since I
don't know the first
thing about it? I'll probably break my back moving it and spend the next 10
years learning how to use it and collecting disability benefits at the same
time.
Not crazy, lucky since you have the space.
--Chuck
3:46 a.m.
On 23 Aug, Glenatacme(a)aol.com wrote:
Recently a post apperaed here wherein someone was
wanting to give away a VAX
11/750.
That is a really nice VAX. Not that fast (0.65 VUPs / MIPS) but it is
one of the more handy real VAXen. (Real means it is no MicroVAX or
VAXstation). Only the VAX 11/730 is smaler.
Especially appealing is the number of
operating systems which it will run,
You may join the TUHS/PUPS mailinglist, get a
free UNIX source license
and a copy of the TUHS/PUPS UNIX software archive. Then you are able to
run some 4.xBSD VAX UNIX on your 11/750. See
http://minnie.tuhs.org/TUHS/index.html
Also, consider to join the NetBSD VAX mailinglist, even if you don't
intend to run NetBSD on that machine. There are a lot of people on that
list that can help you to get that machine to work.
For VMS see: http://www.montagar.com/hobbyist/index.html
It looks ablout 3.5 feet tall, and the specs put it at
180+ kilograms. How
can it weigh that much?
It is made out of a lot, now old, iron. Have a look at
http://www.netbsd.org/Documentation/Hardware/Machines/DEC/vax/vax700.html#v…
and of course
http://vaxarchive.sevensages.org/hw/750faq.html
How much does the tape unit weigh? Another 180
kilos??
Depends on the tape unit. A TSV05, AKA chipher F880, is rather small
and can be caried by one person. Some TU?? device with that vacuum
stuff may be lager and heavier than the VAX. Don't forget the disks.
Some RA8x are comon for the VAX11 series of minicomputers. A RA81 is
26.3 x 44.5 x 67.3 cm big (14" platters) and weights around 80kg -
without the rack.
What is the total power consumption for the 11/750 and
the tape unit?
A friend is running a 11/750 with some TU tape and RA8x disks out of
one
or two 230V (germany) wall outlets. It is not that bad like a VAX 9000.
;-)
--
tsch??,
Jochen
Homepage: http://www.unixag-kl.fh-kl.de/~jkunz/
28 Aug
28 Aug
1:10 p.m.
New subject: VAX 11/7xx (was Re: Culture Shock)
--- jkunz(a)unixag-kl.fh-kl.de wrote:
On 23 Aug, Glenatacme(a)aol.com wrote:
I agree it's a nice VAX, one of my favorites (probably because it was
my first experience). The 11/725 is the smallest "real" VAX - a KA730
CPU in a box slightly larger than a BA123, typically with an RC-25 dual
disk (25 Mb platter fixed, 25 MB removable cartridge, like an oversized
Syquest 44Mb), making the 11/750 the "third" smallest real VAX (not
counting the OEMed, rack-mounted VAX-11/751 - same CPU, packaged for the
geological/oil industry).
The 11/750 maxes out at 14Mb with the right memory controller, 8Mb with
the more common one (and 2Mb with the original!). It has three MASSBUS
slots for DEC disk and tape and plenty of 3rd-party options (like the
SI9900 controllers I have). You can even stick a second UNIBUS off of
one of the MASSBUS slots if you _really_ need it (L0010?)
We ran VMS 3.x on ours back in the day when that was common. It was
retired to a storage locker (mine!) running VMS 4.6 and VMS 5.5-2
(depending on whether you booted the Fujitsu SMD drives off the SI9900
or the RA81). At its greatest extent, it had 8Mb RAM, 1Gb disk, and
a raft of Emulex CS-21 serial cards (more than six w/16 ports each).
As I said... very nice machine. Ran VMS MAIL and MASS-11 word processing
mostly, along with VAX-C. As long as there weren't more than about five
active users, it felt like you had the machine to yourself. More memory
would have helped. Compiling our entire product from scratch did take
several hours.
-ethan
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Recently a post apperaed here wherein someone was
wanting to give away
a VAX 11/750.
That is a really nice VAX. Not that fast (0.65 VUPs / MIPS) but it
is
one of the more handy real VAXen. (Real means it is no MicroVAX or
VAXstation). Only the VAX 11/730 is smaler. 
23 Aug
23 Aug
9:01 a.m.
Rumor has it that Glenatacme(a)aol.com may have mentioned these words:
[snip]
It looks ablout 3.5 feet tall, and the specs put it at
180+ kilograms. How
can it weigh that much? What's in it, lead? (yes, I know solder has lead
in
it , , ,)
How much does the tape unit weigh? Another 180 kilos??
It's not the computer storage space you have to worry about -- You need the
*forklift* storage space (to move the computer around)!
What is the total power consumption for the 11/750 and
the tape unit?
Am I crazy for wanting to rescue this critter, since I don't know the first
thing about it? I'll probably break my back moving it and spend the next 10
years learning how to use it and collecting disability benefits at the same
time.
Isn't that the *perfect* situation? Get *paid* to monkey with classic
machines all day???? ;-) So what if your back's all munged up? So what if
you're in constant pain? [in the US] If you're on disability, you've got
Medicare, so the Dr. bills are paid!!! :-)
Mebbe *I'll* rescue that thing! <g>
Roger "Merch" Merchberger
--
Roger "Merch" Merchberger --- sysadmin, Iceberg Computers
Recycling is good, right??? Ok, so I'll recycle an old .sig.
If at first you don't succeed, nuclear warhead
disarmament should *not* be your first career choice.
8524
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4 comments
5 participants
participants (5)
-
cmcmanis＠mcmanis.com -
erd_6502＠yahoo.com -
Glenatacme＠aol.com -
jkunz＠unixag-kl.fh-kl.de -
zmerch＠30below.com