About 18 months ago, I was given a Vax 11/780, complete [...] in other words the whole works. Since I only collect micros and some Unix workstations, I posted it's availability [...]. After posting to the list I only got one response and at the time I was living in an apartment and didn't have room to store the system. Finally it was dumpstered. The same fate fell to the two PDP11's that were removed from service a couple on months later.

James "Carlini, Antonio" wrote: > > >more to the point :-). I had very little feedback. One from one > > There may not be many 11/78x machines in hobbyist hands. > There may not be too many corporations subscribed to > this list :-) > > It took me many years (admittedly in the UK) before > I came across a uPDP-11. I've never seen a Robin (hint,hint...). > You need to be patient. In my experience, the docs and > hardware will come along at different times - never > turn down an incomplete package (I'm preaching to > the converted here since you have the innards > already !). > > How many VAX-11/78x machines were produced? > These days you expect that thousands of any machine would > be sold (except maybe the specialised supercomputers). > I believe that for the VAX 9000 series, only 400-500 made > it out of the door. The same order of magnitude may well > be true for the VAX-11/78x systems. > > How long have people been collecting such > large machines? I don't have the room - > I could not realistically find room for a VAX 4000 > right now, never mind anything bigger! > > > >9 months ago :-). However, I have indication that my 11/785 boards > >won't work on the 11/780 backplane. So, I'm still desperately > >looking for a 11/785. I would be a lot more patient if I saw those > > I don't know anything about the 11/780 => 11/785 > upgrade but I would be surprised if the backplane > had to be replaced. > > >in the first place. Where are they? > > They may all be in dealers wharehouses and defence > sites and nuclear power stations. I did hear of three > being decommissioned in the UK a few years ago > but that's about it. > > >get some leads to follow. The underlying assumption being that > >there is one 11/785 recycled as scrapmetal every month that I don't > >find it. > > I suspect the underlying assumption is just that > there are not that many of the beasts still around. > I guess by the time I have the room for one of > these, there won't be any left! > > Antonio

Gunther, I think I remember someone announcing, on this list a week or two ago, an available 11/780 in Dallas. -- Jeffrey S. Sharp jss(a)subatomix.com

All I know that I found two complete 11/585 CPU boardsets, complete with backplane and cardcage a few years ago, and _then_ a complete 2x2 CPU system (two 11/787 (two-processored 11/785 systems) that were connected thru a shared memory box), which was an unbelievable sight... I was a bit sad that I couldn't take that system home, but obviously it was too big (first I'd had to ship it 200 kilometres, and then find him a good home...), so all I have are memories and a few pictures....