VMS and supported VAX hardware

[Jon Elson]

On 10/04/2015 08:30 AM, Glen Slick wrote:
> On Sat, Oct 3, 2015 at 10:18 PM, Zane Healy <healyzh at aracnet.com> wrote:
>> On Oct 3, 2015, at 5:21 PM, Jon Elson <elson at pico-systems.com> wrote:
>>
>>> No, absolutely not.  I know that 4.3-4.7 will not run (properly) on a KA-650.  In general, it boots up, but doesn't have a machine check handler that is compatible with the 650 architecture.  I ran into that one myself.
>> That's interesting, my system with a KA-650 ran 4.x originally, I forget the actual version, but I think it was 4.6.  Sadly it was on the RD53 that came with the system, and the RD53 cratered before I could get a backup. :-(
>>
>> Zane
> http://h71000.www7.hp.com/openvms/os/openvms-release-history.txt
>
> According to that release history version V4.7A in 28-MAR-1988 was a
> Limited HW Release for the VAXstation 3200/3500 Mayfair I KA650.
>
Well, I THOUGHT I was running 4.7 on my home system.  Seems 
that was the last version that didn't require a license.  
But, maybe I was NOT running 4.7, but some earlier version.  
But, I would have had 4.7, not 4.7A, so maybe you needed the 
4.7A to support the KA650.

I dug out some of my notes from the system, and it seems I 
had VMS 4.7 and VMS 5.5 (which I couldn't run fully as I had 
no license.) But, my memory of all this is a bit rusty, 
now.  I did have the system running continuously until 2007, 
but didn't use it much online.  It ran an environmental 
monitoring program in the house, and displayed time, date 
temp and humidity on a couple LCD displays.  In 2007 I moved 
that program over to a Linux PC, and the VAX hard drive 
crashed a few weeks later.

Jon