VAX9000 unearthed

Chris Zach cz at alembic.crystel.com
Fri Feb 18 15:30:00 CST 2022


> XMI already existed as the system bus for the VAX 6000 series machines. 
>    I/O on the VAX 6000's was via an XMI-to-BI bridge.  I don't remember 
> the exact performance specs on XMI, but it was wider and faster than BI.

I thought XMI was only supposed to be a CPU/memory bus, with IO being 
done by multiple VaxBI busses. That's what we had on the 6000 at the 
computer Society: 2 CPUs, memory, and two VaxBi with a SCSI disk 
controller on each.

I think it also had serial connections via terminal servers because the 
ceiling in the computer room collapsed shortly after I started working 
there from all the RS232 cables piled up there. Landed right on the 
SparcStation 20 and "crashed" our WAIS/Gopher server.

Learn something new every day.


More information about the cctalk mailing list