I wrote:
All of the really big iron I've worked with still
had plugs. Some
were big-honkin' three-phase-Y 416V 50A/phase twist-lock plugs, but
they were still plugs.
William Donzelli wrote:
Bigger, BIGGER! Medium sized mainframe and above. A
Convex I have in the
shop has a cord, but its about the size of my wrist, and terminates in a
standard (large) electrical junction box. Apparently it was easier to
pull out the whole box instead of just cutting the cord.
I'm talking LARGE sized mainframes. Each cabinet had a three-phase
cable with plug. I don't think any one cabinet used more than 416V
phase-to-phase at 50A/phase; that's sufficient for 60KW power
dissipation, and I've never seen a single cabinet of mainframe gear that
needed more than that.
However, 100A and 125A pin & sleeve connectors are readily available
(and comply with international standards such as IEC 309), so there
really wouldn't be any good excuse for the equipment NOT to have a plug.
Part of the reason for going to 416V, by the way, is so that the power
cord doesn't have to be more than about 3-4 inches in diameter. They're
unweildy enough at that size and you really wouldn't want anything bigger.