18 Aug
2005
18 Aug
'05
9:48 a.m.
The other day the mailman delivered the bills and a lead saying a doctor's office
around the corner wanted to get rid of their 'big old' computer. Picture my
stationwagon's wheels squealing out of the driveway moments later. ;)
Turns out to be a IBM PowerServer 520, a 3151 ascii terminal, a 7207 scsi tape, a 4226
printer, a couple of concentrator boxes, and the cabeling to run it all. It boots cleanly
into AIX 3.2 and I've got the root password for it. Sweet, though I didn't get
any media or docs or see a C compiler in there either. Off to the faqs there
It was supprisingly liftable after an earlier experience toting a 'small' AS400.
Has anyone been inside a 3151 terminal? The screen is pretty dim even with the front
contrast knob jacked up all the way. Is there a pot inside (and where) to brighten the
screen?
And can anyone recommend any of the cool cards/options to look out for? It's my
first AIX box.
Thanks
- Mike: dogas at bellsouth.net
ps. here are some pics...
http://bellsouthpwp.net/d/o/dogas/a.JPG
http://bellsouthpwp.net/d/o/dogas/b.JPG
http://bellsouthpwp.net/d/o/dogas/c.JPG
http://bellsouthpwp.net/d/o/dogas/d.JPG
http://bellsouthpwp.net/d/o/dogas/e.JPG
http://bellsouthpwp.net/d/o/dogas/f.JPG
http://bellsouthpwp.net/d/o/dogas/g.JPG
18 Aug
18 Aug
10:01 a.m.
Turns out to be a IBM PowerServer 520, a 3151 ascii
terminal, a 7207 scsi
tape, a 4226 printer, a couple of concentrator boxes, and the cabeling to
run it all. It boots cleanly into AIX 3.2 and I've got the root password
for it. Sweet, though I didn't get any media or docs or see a C compiler
in there either. Off to the faqs there
Now that looks familiar, we used to have a lot of those around here,
primarily as workstations, or for running batch jobs. I think they're
finally all gone. I don't think I ever scavenged any doc's for it either,
as I had no desire to have a Unix system that is that big and slow.
You should be able to plug a normal (non-IBM) terminal in, or get a video
card for it.
Zane
10:12 a.m.
dogas at bellsouth.net wrote:
The other day the mailman delivered the bills and a
lead saying a doctor's office around the corner wanted to get rid of their 'big
old' computer. Picture my stationwagon's wheels squealing out of the driveway
moments later. ;)
Turns out to be a IBM PowerServer 520, a 3151 ascii terminal, a 7207 scsi tape, a 4226
printer, a couple of concentrator boxes, and the cabeling to run it all. It boots cleanly
into AIX 3.2 and I've got the root password for it. Sweet, though I didn't get
any media or docs or see a C compiler in there either. Off to the faqs there
It was supprisingly liftable after an earlier experience toting a 'small' AS400.
Pretty standard first-generation RS/6000. Not fast by any means, even
when it came out, but perfectly serviceable, and holds lots of hard disks.
These machines aren't usually that heavy, unless they have significant
numbers of 5.25" FH hard drives in them.
Have fun.
Peace... Sridhar
10:13 a.m.
dogas at bellsouth.net wrote:
The other day the mailman delivered the bills and a
lead saying a doctor's office around the corner wanted to get rid of their 'big
old' computer. Picture my stationwagon's wheels squealing out of the driveway
moments later. ;)
Turns out to be a IBM PowerServer 520, a 3151 ascii terminal, a 7207 scsi tape, a 4226
printer, a couple of concentrator boxes, and the cabeling to run it all. It boots cleanly
into AIX 3.2 and I've got the root password for it. Sweet, though I didn't get
any media or docs or see a C compiler in there either. Off to the faqs there
By the way, this machine will run newish OS. Anything up to and
including AIX 5.1. 5.2 requires PCI/CHRP.
Peace... Sridhar
12:44 p.m.
Sridhar Ayengar wrote:
By the way, this machine will run newish OS. Anything
up to and
including AIX 5.1. 5.2 requires PCI/CHRP.
Ahem.
A 7013-520 will *walk* AIX v5.1. "run" is not in that model's lexicon.
I have a 520, and v4.1.4 is the best speed/feature compromise I've found.
Doc
1:05 p.m.
And can anyone recommend any of the cool cards/options
to look out
for? It's my first AIX box.
There are some ass-kicking (for the time) video cards for the very early
RS/6000s that took up three slots (!). Pretty rare. Even rarer are the
very cool routing coprocessor cards. I have found the 10base2 and V.35
routing cards in the wild, but the FDDI and HSSI cards are basically
unavailable.
William Donzelli
aw288 at osfn.org
1:10 p.m.
On Thursday 18 August 2005 15:05, William Donzelli wrote:
IME they're not that rare. Of course if you look at who my 'supplier'
is (vvv), I guess that might explain why. :)
Pat
--
Purdue University Research Computing --- http://www.rcac.purdue.edu/
The Computer Refuge --- http://computer-refuge.org
And can anyone
recommend any of the cool cards/options to look out
for? It's my first AIX box.
There are some ass-kicking (for the time) video cards for the very
early RS/6000s that took up three slots (!).
8:02 p.m.
William Donzelli wrote:
I've found all of those cards fairly often on ebay. FDDI cards go for
cheap. I have loads of them.
Peace... Sridhar
And can anyone
recommend any of the cool cards/options to look out
for? It's my first AIX box.
There are some ass-kicking (for the time) video cards for the very early
RS/6000s that took up three slots (!). Pretty rare. Even rarer are the
very cool routing coprocessor cards. I have found the 10base2 and V.35
routing cards in the wild, but the FDDI and HSSI cards are basically
unavailable.
William Donzelli
aw288 at osfn.org
8:30 p.m.
I've found all of those cards fairly often on
ebay. FDDI cards go for
cheap. I have loads of them.
Are we talking about the same cards? The ones I am referring to are known
as "F960", "H960", "E386" and so forth. The first letter
refers to the
interface (FDDI, HSSI, Ethernet, and so forth) and the number indicates
the processor. A stripped down AIX ran on these cards (yes, AIX on a
80386 - deal with it) to perform the routing. The host RS/6000 basically
just did housekeeping.
The FDDI and HSSI cards (I don't think) ever became a real product, with
less than 300 or so made. The V.35 and Ethernet cards did, and pop up from
time to time (they were used in a specially badged RS/6000-320 called a
<mumble> Network Processor).
William Donzelli
aw288 at osfn.org
9:04 p.m.
William Donzelli wrote:
Are we talking about the same cards? The ones I am referring to are known
as "F960", "H960", "E386" and so forth. The first letter
refers to the
interface (FDDI, HSSI, Ethernet, and so forth) and the number indicates
the processor. A stripped down AIX ran on these cards (yes, AIX on a
80386 - deal with it) to perform the routing. The host RS/6000 basically
just did housekeeping.
The FDDI and HSSI cards (I don't think) ever became a real product, with
less than 300 or so made. The V.35 and Ethernet cards did, and pop up from
time to time (they were used in a specially badged RS/6000-320 called a
<mumble> Network Processor).
Some of those V.35 cards were in service as recently as 2 years go in
Austin, running in a set of 7012-39x systems. For all I know they still
are - they were doing the job they were installed to do and the company
hadn't found a great replacement, so they may be running them still.
We're not talking some mom & pop ISP operation, either. This was in
a major backbone provider's NOC.
Doc
19 Aug
19 Aug
2:17 p.m.
We're not talking some mom & pop ISP
operation, either. This was in
a major backbone provider's NOC.
Wow, that is pretty neat. ANS had to ditch them because the cards just
could not handle really big routing tables anymore.
We ditched the RS/6000s and converted to a mixed Bay/Cisco backbone -
something that would cause a big headache later on.
William Donzelli
aw288 at osfn.org
7:29 p.m.
William Donzelli wrote:
These systems had been managing some dedicated circuits and I think
catching and collating transaction and error data from that facility and
a couple of other NOCs for a long long time.
We're
not talking some mom & pop ISP operation, either. This was in
a major backbone provider's NOC.
Wow, that is pretty neat. ANS had to ditch them because the cards just
could not handle really big routing tables anymore. We ditched the RS/6000s and converted to a mixed
Bay/Cisco backbone -
something that would cause a big headache later on.
Aye. That I can believe.
Doc
5:20 a.m.
William Donzelli wrote:
I don't know what the model is called, but the genuine IBM card has
FRU#93F0377. I see them all the time. The SAS interface is a single
MCA card. The DAS interface is an MCA card with a MCA daughtercard
which takes (I believe) only power from the slot and communicates to the
main board via a ribbon cable. MIC connectors all around.
A bit rarer, but still not that uncommon are the Syskonnect SK-5241/5261
MCA FDDI interfaces.
I've found
all of those cards fairly often on ebay. FDDI cards go for
cheap. I have loads of them.
Are we talking about the same cards? The ones I am referring to are known
as "F960", "H960", "E386" and so forth. The first letter
refers to the
interface (FDDI, HSSI, Ethernet, and so forth) and the number indicates
the processor. A stripped down AIX ran on these cards (yes, AIX on a
80386 - deal with it) to perform the routing. The host RS/6000 basically
just did housekeeping. The FDDI and HSSI cards (I don't think) ever
became a real product, with
less than 300 or so made. The V.35 and Ethernet cards did, and pop up from
time to time (they were used in a specially badged RS/6000-320 called a
<mumble> Network Processor).
I believe I have a MCA V.35 card or two. The ones I have are ARTIC960
i960-based coprocessed serial interfaces that speak V.35.
Peace... Sridhar
2:15 p.m.
I don't know what the model is called, but the
genuine IBM card has
FRU#93F0377. I see them all the time. The SAS interface is a single
MCA card. The DAS interface is an MCA card with a MCA daughtercard
which takes (I believe) only power from the slot and communicates to the
main board via a ribbon cable. MIC connectors all around.
The ones we used were different. They were single MCA cards with
daughterboards, and the FDDI connections were STs. There was a kludgey
cable just sticking out the back for the connection to the FDDI bypass
switch. The HSSI cards were very similar, but the daughterboard was
different, and obviously no STs or bypass controls.
The very early 386 based ones were really odd, in that they were about
three times as tall as the MCA standard called for. Why they did it this
way - who knows? The RS-6000 mod 930s we had were in extra tall chassis to
support the card.
I believe I have a MCA V.35 card or two. The ones I
have are ARTIC960
i960-based coprocessed serial interfaces that speak V.35.
Those I have seen, but not too common.
Hmmm...very interesting that the FDDI cards were apparently upgraded and
released - I was told they were a dead end.
William Donzelli
aw288 at osfn.org
7066
days inactive
7068
days old
13 comments
6 participants
participants (6)
-
aw288＠osfn.org -
doc＠mdrconsult.com -
dogas＠bellsouth.net -
healyzh＠aracnet.com -
pat＠computer-refuge.org -
ploopster＠gmail.com