15 Dec
2005
15 Dec
'05
7:55 p.m.
Subject: VAX 9000 (was: Re: Sun 386i available)
From: Adrian Graham <witchy at binarydinosaurs.co.uk>
Date: Fri, 16 Dec 2005 00:16:54 +0000
To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at
classiccmp.org>
Your mail name reminded me of a conversation I had today with an ex-Digit
with regard to the Vax 9000 and its reliability record which is less than
good. Apologies if this question has been asked before and is in the
archives, but did you work with VAX9000s back in the day?
My reason for asking is that I believed the VAX9000 would be watercooled
(its codename was Aquarius) but shipped machines were aircooled and I'm
wondering why there was a change in policy?
Water was new to DEC required special people to fix it and some sites
didn't like the idea or could not support water for the system. NY some
of the older buildings took near a year to get adaquate power for smaller
machines. Water, forget about that.
Reminds me of a site in Salt Lake City, water flooded top floor and
sustem on second floor was crushed when the building pancaked from
the flood.
All ex-digits can reply of course :)
It was a good machine that held up well in use. The bulk of them
succumed when installed (phase rotation had the blowers backward!)
and the usual field circus tricks.
The person I was talking to today explained that their
9000s were removed
and replaced with 7000s....must've been a hell of a drain on Digit
resources......
Didn't want to support machine that was so unique parts and skills wise.
There was (may still be) a PDP1 in Yellowknife doing bookeeping for
a mill. Field service offered them all sorts of inducements during
the 80s to replace it. I believe they system cost over a half million
to replace with software and stuff tossed in. It was just too costly
to fix the PDP1 if it broke.
Allison
On 15/12/05 23:39, "9000 VAX" <vax9000 at
gmail.com> wrote:
On 12/15/05, Patrick Finnegan <pat at
computer-refuge.org> wrote:
--
Adrian/Witchy
Binary Dinosaurs creator/curator
Www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk - the UK's biggest private home computer
collection?
On Thursday 15 December 2005 18:08, 9000 VAX
wrote:
Yes, private and yes, inches. I was thinking about a program I was
working on. Actually I thought twice before typed ', and still the
wrong one is chosen.
vax, 9000
fedex rate a 30'x25'x25' box
I'm assuming that was supposed to be private.. but I must say, that's
one huge box! (Or did you mean inches ala " not feet ala '? :)
Pat
--
Purdue University Research Computing --- http://www.rcac.purdue.edu/
The Computer Refuge --- http://computer-refuge.org
15 Dec
15 Dec
11:15 p.m.
Water was new to DEC required special people to fix it
and some sites
didn't like the idea or could not support water for the system.
From what I understand, DEC was amazingly inept at
dealing with water
cooling.
NY some
of the older buildings took near a year to get adaquate power for smaller
machines. Water, forget about that.
I can agree to this, working enought with NYC and the thugs that run the
buildings. It took FOREVER for those guys to get ANYTHING done.
Oh, and bursting water pipes were always fun in NYC. At the AOL node at 60
Hudson street, we got flooeded not one, but twice. Both during the
holidays. The second time drenched us but did not kill us for long - it
did a good job killing off NASDAQs main node, however.
It was a good machine that held up well in use. The
bulk of them
succumed when installed (phase rotation had the blowers backward!)
and the usual field circus tricks.
Obviously DEC had not figured out the phase rotatiom sensor yet, unlike
most others.
As much as I might be razzing the 9000s, it is one of the two VAX machines
I want (the other being an 11/780 - hey, I went to school with one).
William Donzelli
aw288 at osfn.org
16 Dec
16 Dec
1:56 a.m.
On Thu, 2005-12-15 23:15:36 -0500, William Donzelli <aw288 at osfn.org> wrote:
As much as I might be razzing the 9000s, it is one of
the two VAX machines
I want (the other being an 11/780 - hey, I went to school with one).
If I could pay for shipping, I'd love to take one, too...
MfG, JBG
--
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"Eine Freie Meinung in einem Freien Kopf | Gegen Zensur | Gegen Krieg _ _ O
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ret = do_actions((curr | FREE_SPEECH) & ~(NEW_COPYRIGHT_LAW | DRM | TCPA));
17 Dec
17 Dec
7:29 p.m.
On Fri, December 16, 2005 12:55 am, Allison said:
didn't like the idea or could not support water
for the system. NY some
of the older buildings took near a year to get adaquate power for smaller
machines. Water, forget about that.
The naiive side of me decided that companies based in older buildings
wouldn't need the power of a VAX 9000, but I've only been a tourist in NYC
so I'm fully prepared to be scoffed at :)
It was a good machine that held up well in use. The
bulk of them
succumed when installed (phase rotation had the blowers backward!)
and the usual field circus tricks.
My contact had their uptime at 24 days max, but perhaps that was a UK bad
machine!
a mill. Field service offered them all sorts of
inducements during
the 80s to replace it. I believe they system cost over a half million
to replace with software and stuff tossed in. It was just too costly
to fix the PDP1 if it broke.
I'd love to know if that's still in use, they'd be surely in line for some
sort of award!
--
adrian/witchy
Binary Dinosaurs creator/curator
www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk - the UKs biggest home computer collection?
10:58 p.m.
The naiive side of me decided that companies based in
older buildings
wouldn't need the power of a VAX 9000, but I've only been a tourist in NYC
so I'm fully prepared to be scoffed at :)
SCOFF SCOFF.
Quite a lot of the larger buildings in NYC have entire floors crammed with
computers and datacom gear - sometimes in the strangest places, hidden
from view. For a while, I damn near lived at 60 Hudson
St., as well as
1155 A of the As).
The buildings are not actually the problem. It is not a huge engineering
task to get cables and pipes running from point A to point B - many of the
older building were designed with some foresight, so there are trunks and
risers in strategic locations. Perhaps these passageways were originally
for the use (and expansion) of older systems - telegraph, pneumatic tube,
and so forth - but they handle fibre and pipe quite well.
The problem is all the arm twisting (often involving money) that one needs
to do to get ANYTHING to happen at the NYC sites.
My contact had their uptime at 24 days max, but
perhaps that was a UK bad
machine!
Or was that 24 days between ECOs?
Apparently the 9000s should have stayed in the oven quite a bit longer.
William Donzelli
aw288 at osfn.org
6863
days inactive
6865
days old
5 comments
5 participants
participants (5)
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ajp166＠bellatlantic.net -
aw288＠osfn.org -
jbglaw＠lug-owl.de -
julesrichardsonuk＠yahoo.co.uk -
witchy＠binarydinosaurs.co.uk