Microvax 3400

From: Chuck McManis <cmcmanis_at_mcmanis.com>
Date: Tue Dec 21 00:13:42 1999

At 01:22 PM 12/21/99 +1030, Geoff Roberts wrote:
>Have acquired at auction for a mere $30AU (a real one not Ebay) a Microvax
>3400 ex Defence Science and Technology Organisation at Salisbury.

Its a nice little VAX, nicer still if you upgrade it...

>Unfortunately it's missing its (DSSI) drives. I hate that. Security...
>Seems to have the following bits in a biggish cube on casters. (BA213 I
>think).

Fortunately DSSI drives seem to be popping up a lot lately. I've seen
several on Ebay and the local scrap yard had a bunch recently (RF30's so
hardly worth it, but whatever) check the Austrialian DEC reseller near you.
They may be willing to let one or two go for a "song."

>TQK50 M7546-00 TK50 Controller
>TK50 tape drive

Interesting, mine came with a TK70.

>KFQSA-SA M7769 Storage Adapter (DSSI Disk Interface)

The 3400 has a DSSI interface on the CPU card, did you get another board as
well?

>It/they seems to have about 6 of the little Honda connectors.

I'm unfamiliar with the term "honda" connector but the DSSI connector looks
like a SCSI-2 high density connector with a couple of guide pins stuck up
from it.

>I think this might have multiple controllers or something similar. There
>are 3 front
>panels with the same lights and connectors anyway.

Three disk control panels? That they should each have a little ID plug in
them and the read/write/fault panel.

>DRQ3B-SA M7658-PA 2 port parallel interface (If I'm looking at the right
>bits, it has a couple of
>connectors that look more like old type SCSI (Sorta oversized female
>Centronics connectors?)
>on the front panel. What in heck did these talk to? A line printer?

Sweet! It talks to anything you want it to talk to. General purpose DMA
driven parallel port (dual)

>What was evidently the DSSI daisy chain cable is floating around in the top
>section
>with the dinky little DSSI terminator on a plate mounted at the top left.

Inside the top of mine is space for three drives on the DEC side rails plus
the TK70. THe DSSI cable connected to each of them.

>There is another ribbon cable that has male and female three row DB type
>connectors (DB68??)
>on it. Looks vaguely like one on my 6000's DMB32's Synchronous port. No
>idea what module
>it comes from yet. Presumably the DRQ.

Could be SDI connectors.


>MS650-BA M7622-A 16Mb RAM (That's an easy one)
>
>KA640-AA M7624-CA Microvax 3300/3400 CPU with 4MB Ram
>Usual console MMJ port and switchable AUI/10Base2 ethernet.
>(Finally, a biggish Vax I don't need a txcvr for....)
>
>Seems intact except for the missing drives and the dress panel that covers
>the leds, TK50 etc.
>The sliding cover is still there but the one behind it on the bulkhead is
>missing. (Any spares out there?)

Well there is a "front" that sits over the front of the box and has a slide
up translucent door that covers the tape drive area. Are you missing the
metal frame that covers the disk bulkhead?

>It seems mostly alive, a quick power up had the LED countdown going through
>ok, apart from stops due to lack of
>disk drives and no smoke or bad smells.....

Well if it gets to number 3 then you can probably net boot it into a
cluster or netbsd. (NetBSD doesn't support the on board DSSI yet though)


--Chuck
Received on Tue Dec 21 1999 - 00:13:42 GMT