Classic Computer Rescue Squad

From: William Donzelli <william_at_ans.net>
Date: Sat Nov 15 10:16:04 1997

> > The most amazing thing is being in a real computer room (i.e. dozens
> > of 14" drives) when the power suddenly goes *off*. The silence is
> > astonishing.
>
> What would be even MORE amazing is when the power comes back ON a second
> later, with all the power switches still on, and everything tries to spin
> up at once...
> Or is there some safeguard against that?

I would certainly hope so, otherwise someone would have to run around
throwing power switches.

Many bits of 1980-90s era IBM stuff, like RS/6000s and AS/400s, have power
sequencers in the racks (those extra wide 9309 things - 1.5m x 1m x 0.75m
- a dumb idea as they do not match up to floor tiles!). These are actually
quite nice, in that you can program them with jumpers to tell each thing
when to turn on.

William Donzelli
william_at_ans.net
Received on Sat Nov 15 1997 - 10:16:04 GMT