Find of the day - test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

15 Sep 1999

That would be your basic Microvax II all right. 

It is a lot of fun to run VMS or NetBSD on them.

Presumably you've got one with the Floppy drives in the front since I
didn't see you mention the TQK50 controller or a 1/2" cartridge tape drive. 

The RD53 is a bit small for a complete UNIX distribution (VMS does well
though) and you can net boot it from another server if you want. If you
join DECUS you can get a free license to VMS.

Console connects to the DB-9 in the back, standard serial port pin-out.
Plug in a terminal and fire it up to see if it can get through post. You
never know, it just may boot :-) Tony Duell would have you first carefully
remove all the boards and unplug all the peripherals, and then power it up
and test the voltages on the power rails, then plug in probably one board
(enough to "load" the supplys a bit and test again) and then re-install and
reseat everything and try booting it) But I only do that level of check on
really old stuff.

--Chuck

At 05:13 PM 9/15/99 -0400, cem14(a)cornell.edu wrote:
...

Today I hauled in something that I have no experience whatsoever with,
but that I'm sure most people in classiccmp own:  a microvax II.
I don't know if it works, or how to hook a terminal to it to
test it.  Here's what I've been able to gather:

Cards:

Slot  description
1     CPU? it has two interesting-looking chips:
      1:  LSILIA 0485, 21-23413-01, DC379, TAC 8546
      2:  LSILIA 0486, 21-23389-01, DC379, CAC 8544
      This is connected to a DB9M in the back panel (console goes here?
      what is the pinout? what is the funny-labeled rotary switch next to 
      it?)

2     nemonix memory board, holds 56 TC511000AP-10 chips

3     dec memory board, holds 144 41256-212141302 chips

4     dec board, some labels are: LPWR M94V-1 25787, and "M7516" in the
      extraction handle; connected to a DB15F in the back panel

5     dec board, (disk controller?), reads M7555 in the extraction handle,
      connected to what seems to be an older RLL hard drive

Hard drive: RD53-A rev A

label in the back panel:

Model: 630QB-A2

product variation: changed from 630QB-A2 to DH630Q4E2 by WFD.

So what exactly is this beast and how can I test if it works?

Best regards,

Carlos.