More 34

From: Philip.Belben_at_powertech.co.uk <(Philip.Belben_at_powertech.co.uk)>
Date: Tue Mar 3 06:31:14 1998

> I did actually check this. It says 208. This is not awfully
> informative, AFAIK, because the voltage fluctuates +/- 5 or so anyway
> >Open the side opposite the CE panel, and look down by the 4 twinax
> connectors.
> >There shoud be a label saying what yours is wired for - Mine wants 204V
> AC.

Voltages like 204V and 208V mean it probably wants 3-phase. These are
the phase-to-phase voltages on three phase systems where the phase to
earth voltage is 117V and 120V respectively. It may only require two of
the three phases, in which case you might be able to convert...

The suggestion of using PC power supplies or similar is a good one but
you may need something a bit more powerful. You need to know how much
current it draws on each supply rail.

I seem to recall that someone on this list has a working S/34. Could
this person measure the current under various conditions? NB 5V rail
current could be 100A or more, so don't just stick a multimeter in
series with it! Use a proper shunt and millivoltmeter.

A while back, I mentioned that I have some system/34 pocket references
available to send to anyone with a s/34 who needs them. No-one has yet
replied that I've seen. Any takers? The OS pocket reference is very
thick (nearly 100 pages IIRC).

Philip.

PS Comparing the System/34 and the 8086 is not strictly fair - the 8086
appeared in laboratory tests in 1979 IIRC, while the S/34 was already on
sale in 1977 I think. Things did shrink _very_ fast at that period!
Also the S/34 has disks, - including my favourite floppy drive! - around
256K of memory, and other I/O that would have required several PC style
boxes full of support chips, drives etc. for the 8086 in the late '70s.
Received on Tue Mar 03 1998 - 06:31:14 GMT