VAXstation vs MicroVAX (was Re: dammit...)

From: Roger Ivie <IVIE_at_cc.usu.edu>
Date: Fri Dec 3 09:29:36 1999

>Thanks. We got it c. 1989 for VAXBI development. I got to write the firmware
>and device driver for our intellegent serial card. I currently have a box in
>the basement with 80% of the world's production of it - 8 cards out of 10.
>After all the development, it was never a big seller due to the fact that the
>world had moved on.

Aha! Another VAXBI survivor! The company I used to work for did a quad
IEEE-488 interface and a MIL-STD-1553 interface. I did the firmware for
the IEEE-488 interface (imaging a Z80 looking up user-space addresses
in the page table. Fun!) and the device drivers for both interfaces. We
did hardware debug by running CP/M on one of the IEEE-488 cards; that's
right, I have a VAXBI machine that runs CP/M.

>At least we priced the card high enough to break even
>on the production costs and the cost on the 8300, barely. If you've ever
>wondered why VAXBI SCSI cards cost so much, it's because a) they can and b)
>nobody ever sold more than a handful of anything for the VAXBI except DEC.

We sold about a hundred or so IEEE-488 interfaces. It took many years, but
it did manage to climb out of the red ink. The problem is that the bloody
thing simply will not die; I've been averaging about one inquiry a quarter
on it.

Roger Ivie
ivie_at_cc.usu.edu
Received on Fri Dec 03 1999 - 09:29:36 GMT