28 Jan
2002
28 Jan
'02
7:18 p.m.
Hi
I am happy to announce my new baby: thanks to Jon Auringer of
Astronautics and Merle Pierce of RICM, I have now a VAX 11/780
in my garage. Nice cabinet, with UNIBUS extension and a TE16
drive (looks nice but will I ever sacrifice a 25A circuit just
for it?).
Inside the VAX are KA780, UBA, MS780 (8 MB) and 2 MBAs. In the
UNIBUS cabinet are two DZ-11, an INTERLAN BD-NI 1010, an
M8716 (general purpose parallel), and a "CBV inc" (?)
"MODEL-215 DMA Option" (two 4-wide boards with additional
cable between them, to a 3-row D connector that looks a
bit like my KLESI connector ... any idea what that might be?).
More UNIBUS stuff: Datasystems LP 11/32 (parallel printer)
a few grants (I need to learn UNIBUSology to understand how
this can work.) I have spare DZ-11, just in case someone is
in need.
The last board is a 919 UNIBUS connector with long cable
connecting into another drawer. That one is a backplane of
unknown nature. It has one card to play the UNIBUS adapter,
then a whole bunch of MEGATEK cards all together making up
a frame-buffer and digitizer assembly that was used for
a SCICARDS circuit layout system. Any shred of information
about this would be appreciated. I don't think its UNIBUS or
QBUS (no grants between the two clusters of cards.)
Now, since I want to use this VAX to upgrade to an 11/785,
I still need a KA785 CPU backplane. The worst beaten-up
machine that you see in your neighbor's dumpster will do
for screwing those pieces off. Unfortunately they are
all too often forgotten.
But I will first go with the 11/780 setup to gain the
feeling for this class of machine.
I have some documentation and probably a full set of
diagnostics floppies. If anyone needs, I'll be happy to
help out ... of course I first need to get the machine
going to read the floppies.
I am looking for info on the CI installation. I have the
CI boards but no clue about cab-kit stuff. Was hoping
to use parts of the CIBCA cab kit stuff to build one.
I am also looking for a source of FP780 boards, mine had
no floating poing option installed. I have the additional
PSU, but no cabling for the PSU to the backplane and of
course no FP780 cards. (I have FP785 cards, but they
don't mix.)
Finally I'm contemplating to build a dual processor machine
if I can gather the parts for it. All I need is a CPU
extension cabinet, a second KA780 or 785 CPU set and bits
and pieces from other VAX 11/78x backplanes (SBI cabling,
mounting stuff etc.) Apparently the Purdue guys have
done that very successfully in 1981, and the only reason
this wasn't an SMP setup appears to be that 4.1 BSD
didn't do SMP. I would imagine that one could hack
NetBSD to run a dual 11/78x. (That's not an 11/782 or /787,
DEC did that differently.) So, if you have a spare
extension cabinet, backplane, CPU boards, PSUs, card cage,
card rails, cables, even the meanest nag, let me know.
I am slowly switching from an ackquisition frenzie to
maintenance mode. I seem to have most of what I can
reasonably want and fit into my house. Now it's time to
get it all going well. If I have things running by
Summer, I'm thinking of throwing a VAX-Party. But it
may take me until next year.
I have given my 6000-520 and second SA600 and second
HSC90 to Merle from RICM. I still have a TU81PLUS and
a Dataproducts printer to give away. Probably
also two terminals (VT 420 or so).
regards,
-Gunther
--
Gunther Schadow, M.D., Ph.D. gschadow(a)regenstrief.org
Medical Information Scientist Regenstrief Institute for Health Care
Adjunct Assistant Professor Indiana University School of Medicine
tel:1(317)630-7960 http://aurora.regenstrief.org
29 Jan
29 Jan
5:27 a.m.
way cool!! 780, wow thats a cool piece of hardware!
i have the installation manuals for the CI780. I can mail them to you.
Maybe when youre done if you send them on to whoever has been scanning
stuff in and putting it online, that would be cool..
isildur
On Tue, 29 Jan 2002, Gunther Schadow wrote:
Hi
I am happy to announce my new baby: thanks to Jon Auringer of
Astronautics and Merle Pierce of RICM, I have now a VAX 11/780
in my garage. Nice cabinet, with UNIBUS extension and a TE16
drive (looks nice but will I ever sacrifice a 25A circuit just
for it?).
Inside the VAX are KA780, UBA, MS780 (8 MB) and 2 MBAs. In the
UNIBUS cabinet are two DZ-11, an INTERLAN BD-NI 1010, an
M8716 (general purpose parallel), and a "CBV inc" (?)
"MODEL-215 DMA Option" (two 4-wide boards with additional
cable between them, to a 3-row D connector that looks a
bit like my KLESI connector ... any idea what that might be?).
More UNIBUS stuff: Datasystems LP 11/32 (parallel printer)
a few grants (I need to learn UNIBUSology to understand how
this can work.) I have spare DZ-11, just in case someone is
in need.
The last board is a 919 UNIBUS connector with long cable
connecting into another drawer. That one is a backplane of
unknown nature. It has one card to play the UNIBUS adapter,
then a whole bunch of MEGATEK cards all together making up
a frame-buffer and digitizer assembly that was used for
a SCICARDS circuit layout system. Any shred of information
about this would be appreciated. I don't think its UNIBUS or
QBUS (no grants between the two clusters of cards.)
Now, since I want to use this VAX to upgrade to an 11/785,
I still need a KA785 CPU backplane. The worst beaten-up
machine that you see in your neighbor's dumpster will do
for screwing those pieces off. Unfortunately they are
all too often forgotten.
But I will first go with the 11/780 setup to gain the
feeling for this class of machine.
I have some documentation and probably a full set of
diagnostics floppies. If anyone needs, I'll be happy to
help out ... of course I first need to get the machine
going to read the floppies.
I am looking for info on the CI installation. I have the
CI boards but no clue about cab-kit stuff. Was hoping
to use parts of the CIBCA cab kit stuff to build one.
I am also looking for a source of FP780 boards, mine had
no floating poing option installed. I have the additional
PSU, but no cabling for the PSU to the backplane and of
course no FP780 cards. (I have FP785 cards, but they
don't mix.)
Finally I'm contemplating to build a dual processor machine
if I can gather the parts for it. All I need is a CPU
extension cabinet, a second KA780 or 785 CPU set and bits
and pieces from other VAX 11/78x backplanes (SBI cabling,
mounting stuff etc.) Apparently the Purdue guys have
done that very successfully in 1981, and the only reason
this wasn't an SMP setup appears to be that 4.1 BSD
didn't do SMP. I would imagine that one could hack
NetBSD to run a dual 11/78x. (That's not an 11/782 or /787,
DEC did that differently.) So, if you have a spare
extension cabinet, backplane, CPU boards, PSUs, card cage,
card rails, cables, even the meanest nag, let me know.
I am slowly switching from an ackquisition frenzie to
maintenance mode. I seem to have most of what I can
reasonably want and fit into my house. Now it's time to
get it all going well. If I have things running by
Summer, I'm thinking of throwing a VAX-Party. But it
may take me until next year.
I have given my 6000-520 and second SA600 and second
HSC90 to Merle from RICM. I still have a TU81PLUS and
a Dataproducts printer to give away. Probably
also two terminals (VT 420 or so).
regards,
-Gunther
--
Gunther Schadow, M.D., Ph.D. gschadow(a)regenstrief.org
Medical Information Scientist Regenstrief Institute for Health Care
Adjunct Assistant Professor Indiana University School of Medicine
tel:1(317)630-7960 http://aurora.regenstrief.org
7:29 a.m.
The last board is a 919 UNIBUS connector with long
cable connecting
into another drawer. That one is a backplane of unknown nature. It
has one card to play the UNIBUS adapter, then a whole bunch of
MEGATEK cards all together making up a frame-buffer and digitizer
assembly that was used for a SCICARDS circuit layout system. Any
shred of information about this would be appreciated. I don't think
its UNIBUS or QBUS (no grants between the two clusters of cards.)
Quite likely. I know in years past, I worked with a unibus VAX that
had a drum transparency scanner attached. (It was a really nice
scanner, too; if I'd had hardware interface docs and space, I'd've
snagged it on its way out.) This is relevant because the interface to
it consisted of a section of what looked like unibus backplane that had
been completely rewired (or perhaps it started as bare card-edge
connectors and calling it _re_wired is inappropriate :-). There were a
half-dozen or so boards that had to be plugged into this special
section of backplane, each in the right slot.
It wouldn't surprise me a bit if your framebuffer/digitizer was done
similarly.
Ah, working with the 780 and 750. Those were the days.
/~\ The ASCII der Mouse
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8:16 a.m.
--- der Mouse <mouse(a)Rodents.Montreal.QC.CA> wrote:
A friend of mine built a framebuffer for an 11/780 like that in the late
1970s or early 1980s at Cranston-Csuri Graphics - 1 or 2MB of small RAM
chips and miles of wire-wrap wire. They did lots of sports animations for
grabbing your attention in commercials and between-segment spots as well as
the rotating wire-frame building at the start of "Overdrawn At The Memory
Bank", a Canadian production starring Raul Julia. The building is the
Huntington Bank building in Downtown Columbus, OH.
-ethan
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The last board
is a 919 UNIBUS connector with long cable connecting
into another drawer. That one is a backplane of unknown nature...
Quite likely. I know in years past, I worked with a unibus VAX that
had a drum transparency scanner attached... looked like unibus backplane
that had been completely rewired (or perhaps it started as bare card-edge
connectors and calling it _re_wired is inappropriate :-). There were a
half-dozen or so boards that had to be plugged into this special
section of backplane, each in the right slot.
It wouldn't surprise me a bit if your framebuffer/digitizer was done
similarly.
8208
days inactive
8208
days old
3 comments
4 participants
participants (4)
-
erd_6502＠yahoo.com -
gunther＠aurora.regenstrief.org -
mouse＠Rodents.Montreal.QC.CA -
mrfusion＠argonath.vaxpower.org