>Kevin Schoedel wrote:
> Got an 11/23 in a third-party enclosure ("Transduction 11/BLUE15") along
> with a DSD dual floppy drive. Haven't powered it on yet; the drive
> enclosure's fan has seized, and the main enclosure has a key switch....
Jerome Fine replies:
Transduction designed and produced the BLUE box a few years before
DEC came out with the BA23/BA123 boxes. They were much better
(in my humble opinion) than the BA11 boxes, but not as good or
convenient than the BA23 boxes. But they were also limited in that
they were all rack mount.
If the 11/23 is a dual board, you may have a bit of a problem in the BA23
since the BLUE box was designed with boot boards that might not be
compatible with the BA23.
> As I found it, the arrangement of cards has gaps, unless the backplane is
> *really* weird. The backplane itself is MDB model MLSI 40328 -- anyone
> know the layout?
If I remember, Transduction used a hex back plane modified to be a Qbus
interface with a serpentine use of the "extra" slots. But I can't remember
the order.
> Any reason I couldn't just move this into a BA23?
By the time I acquired a BLUE box, I also had a BA23 box and found it to be
so much more convenient that I discarded the BLUE box. Transduction is
(STILL - but no longer making DEC compatible equipment) in Toronto.
Around 1985 (when DEC began the big push to get rid of smaller VARs),
Transduction began the switch to the PC world. They are still active with
industrial systems. Around 1988 they held an auction at which I picked up
a number of RD52 drives. They also had a package of TK25 tapes, but
I bowed out at about $5 per tape. They could attract only 2 people to the
auction - it was rather fun as a result.
> The only non-obvious card in the system is an MDB DR11B... is this a
> parallel interface?
Probably. MDB boards were usually named by their DEC counterpart.
Sincerely yours,
Jerome Fine
Received on Thu Aug 03 2000 - 09:35:34 BST
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