VAX 9440

[Dave Wade]

Even LCM has had issues. For example, with IBM 43xx boxes. I seem to remember their first box died with memory issues and the second had PSU issues.
Not sure if the PSU is fixed. 

In the UK TNMOC have an ICL 2900 and that is somewhat temperamental and uses a disk drive emulator. They have all the ICL fiche....

http://www.tnmoc.org/special-projects/icl-2966

CHM keep the IBM1401 working because they have two and have plenty of spares.

Large systems always needed a lot of TLC to keep them running When in production older systems had an on-site engineer. 
Honeywell L66 systems also came with an automated board tester that was used to diagnose chip level faults 

I know the DEC systems are more modern and so should be more stable, but don't underestimate the work required.

Dave

> -----Original Message-----
> From: cctalk <cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org> On Behalf Of Lee Courtney via
> cctalk
> Sent: 10 November 2018 18:25
> To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts
> <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
> Subject: Re: VAX 9440
> 
> LCM has successfully restored and is running multiple large vintage systems.
> Not easy, but doable.
> 
> Lee C.
> 
> On Sat, Nov 10, 2018 at 7:55 AM Jim Manley via cctalk
> <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
> wrote:
> 
> > Evan said it was in service until a couple of months ago, so it should
> > power up OK, if it could all be electrically and mechanically stitched
> > back together carefully.  The question is probably, could they afford
> > the power bill?  We have a bunch of Crays and CDCs at the Computer
> > History Museum, and if they were operational, we'd probably have to
> > take up a special very-large-hat-passing collection just to pay the
> > power bill for the
> > multiple,- multi-ton refrigeration units (at least one was about a
> > seven-ton unit, IIRC)!  Then, there's the problem of replacement parts
> > for when, not if, things fail, not to mention the labor expertise and
> > availability.  It's one thing to replace discrete transistors in our
> > IBM 1401, but, it's quite another to desolder and yank various little
> > black rectangles off extremely dense circuit boards without destroying
> > anything else ... and then solder in a replacement, if you can find
> > one not already firmly attached to another board with another kind of
> > failure.  That assumes that problems can even be isolated, although at
> > least more modern systems tend to have self-diagnostic capabilities,
> > at least above a certain level of functionality, or lack thereof.
> >
> > On Sat, Nov 10, 2018 at 3:26 AM Pontus Pihlgren via cctalk <
> > cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
> >
> > > That is a behemoth!!
> > >
> > > Did you ger that huge powerforming thingy that goes with it?
> > >
> > > Are you crazy enough to atempt a power-up?
> > >
> > > /P
> > >
> > > On Wed, Nov 07, 2018 at 09:55:07PM -0500, Evan Koblentz via cctalk
> wrote:
> > > > The VCF museum took delivery of a VAX 9440 today.
> > > >
> > > > It arrived in two 28-foot trailers. Here's our forklift driver
> > > > beginning to unload the first truck:
> > > >
> > > >
> > >
> > https://drive.google.com/file/d/1E-
> Q5xrsYXyjrZEZh92xIBhlStvvNUcRV/view
> > ?usp=sharing
> > > >
> > > > Here's a teaser picture of the main cabinet:
> > > >
> > > >
> > >
> >
> https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bEpSMzBEeOvuDnzPQ9Npc7iYmDhjZq8c/vi
> ew
> > ?usp=sharing
> > > >
> > > > The full system is 30-40 feet long when it's all set up! It is in
> > > > pristine condition and was in service at a defense contractor
> > > > until a couple of months ago.
> > > >
> > > > Rumor has it that we arranged for another one to land in Dave
> > > > McGuire's Large Scale Systems Museum collection, and a third to be
> > > > with Bob Roswell's System Source collection. :)  Perhaps they'll
> > > > post updates too!
> > >
> >
> 
> 
> --
> Lee Courtney
> +1-650-704-3934 cell