Subject: RE: Anyone collect Dec/Compaq Alphaservers or VAXen?
From: "Rod Smallwood" <RodSmallwood at mail.ediconsulting.co.uk>
Date: Tue, 02 Oct 2007 07:08:33 +0100
To: "General Discussion: On-Topic Posts Only" <cctech at
classiccmp.org>
Hmmm
Time for a quick 'We are not worthy' ^00^
Consider my leg pulled. :)
What did you do?
Raid the Mill with a fleet of trucks?
No. I did get some small amounts of odd items from DEC salvage before
it was shut down. Mostly things like H751A power controllers, power
supplies and TU58 drives and boards.
The one uVII (BA123 VIDSYS::) was a parting gift(I paid 100$ for it
with DOCS and licenses) during the days of blood. For those that
don't understand the post 1991 sell off of parts of DEC, that's
when the DIGITAL logo went from blue to burgandy. The other was
built from scrounge. VIDSYS:: is still setup for DECnet area
56.920 (one area in OGO was 56) and HIPPY:: was area 63.390
(hidden area for DECnet overflow).
My 11T03 which is now the 11/73 was a gift from my boss at DEC. I
kept it in the lab area for years for those odd projects but by
late 80s it was obvious it was getting used less and less. He
suggested "when are you going to scrap that thing?" I bring it home
(on property pass) which I did. A year later when it was time to
confirm and renew the property pass his answer was "what 11?".
The remainder were mostly rescues. The bulk of the uVAX3100s came from
UV Waterloo over 10 years ago on a if you take one you take them all
and I was the only one willing to take a huge pile of uVAX3100s
plus cables, VT320s VS2000s, TK50s, several TLZ04s.. Took two
seperate 400mile round trips with a pickup truck filled to capacity.
A fair number of those got redistributed to others as sixteen
uVax3100s take a bit of space.
The rest are also rescues from various seperate trips.
Usually if the system is incomplete I jump on it and clean it up and
restore it to life from spares. The few pending systems are due to
my activities in amateur radio this year and now that I'm done with
the bigger projects it's back to machines.
I don't do Ubus-11s, big VAX (780s and the like) and unfortunately
PDP-10/20s as most are too large to handle or power here. Also
I've reached the point where excess do get passed on to others
as I don't store any large number of systems either. I try to
manage my collection. Those excess sometimes get cleaned up board
added and moved along so they are operable and don't end up in the
trash or worse. I like to power them up and play and that's
incompatable with storage. There are a few small items like extra
VT320s (white, green and amber), VT100s, H19, DECMate-IIIs I keep
in the garage on rotation but I can and do run them there as well
as it's warm enough in the winter and very dry. I keep those out
there mostly to make it easier to move other stuff around in the
room. What seperates me from museum is I use them, reconfigure
and expand them them to suit my wishes or for fun. However,
junking them is out of the questionas even basket cases are
salvaged for any and all usable parts.
FYI: if anyone needs parts for PDT11/1xx systems I have many CPU,
memory and IO boards I'm not ever going to use. Someone took a
bunch apart and then later gave me the box of boards. (ugly
mutter mutter cuss cuss.)
I mostly do DEC and CP/M based systems (s100, totables, SBCs)
but I do have a few oddballs. For some reason the MIPS based
DEC hardware never got my attention nor have the PC/clone(intel)
based systems like Rainbow and VAXmate. I did have PROs (350s
and 380s) but gave those away to concentrate on Qbus.
Allison
Rod
-----Original Message-----
From: cctech-bounces at
classiccmp.org
[mailto:cctech-bounces at
classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Allison
Sent: 01 October 2007 15:47
To: cctech at
classiccmp.org
Subject: RE: Anyone collect Dec/Compaq Alphaservers or VAXen?
Subject: RE: Anyone collect Dec/Compaq Alphaservers or VAXen?
From: "Rod Smallwood" <RodSmallwood at mail.ediconsulting.co.uk>
Date: Mon, 01 Oct 2007 08:00:44 +0100
To: "General Discussion: On-Topic Posts Only"
<cctech at classiccmp.org>
My list
pdp11/94 x 4 R
DEC Rainbow 100+ *
VAX 300 *
VAX 400 *
VAX 500 R
VAXStation 3100 *
DEC 3000 *
Multia *
* = Working
R = Renovation (Mostly missing parts)
Rod Smallwood
A more detailed list of DEC systems here. :)
Collection of operational hardware:
PDP-8 based machines:
====================
PDP-8f, 20k core and 2 serial 8650 and 8652
2 Decmate-IIIs OS/278
Intersil sampler (6100 chipset) extended to 3k ram
6120 based board, homebrew 32kram 8k rom
PDP-11 based machines:
=====================
1 LSI-11/03 rx02
2 PDP11/23 BA11S boxes,
1MB, RQDX2 and RD52
1MB, RQDX2 and RD31, RX50
1 pdp11/73 50" RACK SYSTEM (4MB, DLVJ11, DEQNA, RQDX3>> RX02, RD52,
RX33, RL02).
1 BA11va with 11/23 +tu58 RT-11
1 BA11va with 11/23 +Viking RX02 equivilent RT-11
PDT11/130 11/03 with tu58 dectapeII
OSs in use: RT-11, XXDP-11 and unix V6
VAX based machines:
===================
Microvax-II (ba23 based) 12mb, RQDX3, RD53, RX33
This one lived as HIPSS:: during my days at DEC.
Microvax-II/GPX (Ba123 based, TK50 and SCSI disks)
This one was know as VIDSYS:: inside DEC.
3 Microvax2000 all with 2 RD53, 1 RD54 drive, one with ultrix
1 Microvax2000 as hard disk formatter and MOP bootable system.
2 Microvax3100/m76/gpx 32mb 2 each 1gb scsi internal
3 Microvax3100/server (not M10e) (filled with 400mb and 1gb disks)
4 BA42 SCSI disk farm for the 3100s populated with RZ56s
OSs in use VMSv5.4-4,V5.54, V7.2, Ultrix 4.2
Terminal for the uVAX systems is usually VT1200 via thinnet and the
PDP-11s the usual terminal is either VT340, VT320 or VT180 in terminal
mode.
DEC CP/M speaking machines:
===========================
1 Vt180 complete (dual RX180s)
2 Vt180 CP/M board built up as standalone one modded for 6mhz
1 Vt185 Thats a Vt125 + Vt180.
In the non operational list:
11/23B uPDP-11 in a BA23 pedestal that while complete with 11/23B,
M8057 memory, DHV11, RQDX2 and RD52, RX50 it requries cleaning and
testing.
H11 Backplane complete with LSI-11 CPU, 16k of ram, two serial cards and
a parallel card of heath origin. Some day I'll find the case/power
supply for it. All parts are tested as working.
Small 11/23 system using a H9281-BC (12x2 slots) filled with:
M8186 1/23 (Overclocked CPU mod)
4 M8059 MSV11 ram
DLV11j,
RQDX3 with M9058 distribution board. (for RX33 and RD31)
MRV-11 Eprom card with MSCP boot.
VK170 with matching LK02 keyboard and a monitor. The VK170
is a minimal VT52 on a dual width card for packaged systems
that communicates via RS232 to system and the bus use is
power only.
This is waiting on being packed in a reasonable nonDEC box with a DEC PS
and fans. The boards are known working and the backplane is already
jumpered as Q22.
Generally in my house operational means I can actually turn it on and
play and it has a permanent spot that is easily accessable.
One project that is in process is a H9800 desk/rack that will replace
the existing standard steel office desk. the system to be installed
there will be 11/23B in BA11s with a hand made Disk box for RX33 and
RD52s.
I have two boxes (Xerox Paper sized) of tested boards enough to build
another few 11/23s and a few uVAXII as my spares. Failed boards get
repaird when I feel like it so I have good boards around.
Who was it that has the SIG of
"DEC had then what you wish you could buy now." ?
Allison