< Quick question: what's a DEC DS200? (I'm assuming it means DECstation < 200, but I'm also guessing it's x86-based and has no relation to the < larger MIPS-based systems). the only thin I know by that part number is a DECserver200, a 8port eithernet/LAT terminal server 68000 based. < Another question: what would be a reasonable offer for a stripped < DECsystem 5500? The guy seems to want a (IMHO) ridiculous price for it Unknown on price but those are fast systems in the MIPS lineup. It's also not that old (to be under the 10 year rule). < near what he wanted! From what I can tell the DS5500 would be not much < more than a rare novelty (it IS a Qbus-based MIPS, after all), let alone < competitor to modern servers. (I don't think it was even that much fast < than it's TC relatives.) TC??? It was a fast machine when it was introduced. fast compared to modern with PII/233s and the like is a unfair comparison. < Also, is there a FAQ or something somewhere explaining common hardware? DECs linup was huge so that would be a large list (the option module list was several very thick volumes and listed everything DEC had a part number for) < I'd like explanation on the DECmate as well, but that seems like it woul < be a FAQ by now. crank up your web thingie and follow the PDP-8 trail. The DECmate series is a PDP-8 in CMOS clothing. There are some BIG faq out there for that one. Look here: Frequently Asked Questions about DEC PDP-8 models and options. By Douglas Jones, jones(a)cs.uiowa.edu (with help from many folks) Sites known to carry reasonably current FTPable copies of this file: ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/alt.sys.pdp8 ftp://ftp.uu.net/usenet/news.answers/dec-faq ftp://src.doc.ic.ac.uk:/pub/usenet/news.answers/alt.sys.pdp8 Allison