Your dream computer room

From: Eric Smith <eric_at_brouhaha.com>
Date: Sat Jul 1 00:13:42 2000

I wrote:
> All of the really big iron I've worked with still had plugs. Some
> were big-honkin' three-phase-Y 416V 50A/phase twist-lock plugs, but
> they were still plugs.

William Donzelli wrote:
> Bigger, BIGGER! Medium sized mainframe and above. A Convex I have in the
> shop has a cord, but its about the size of my wrist, and terminates in a
> standard (large) electrical junction box. Apparently it was easier to
> pull out the whole box instead of just cutting the cord.

I'm talking LARGE sized mainframes. Each cabinet had a three-phase
cable with plug. I don't think any one cabinet used more than 416V
phase-to-phase at 50A/phase; that's sufficient for 60KW power
dissipation, and I've never seen a single cabinet of mainframe gear that
needed more than that.

However, 100A and 125A pin & sleeve connectors are readily available
(and comply with international standards such as IEC 309), so there
really wouldn't be any good excuse for the equipment NOT to have a plug.

Part of the reason for going to 416V, by the way, is so that the power
cord doesn't have to be more than about 3-4 inches in diameter. They're
unweildy enough at that size and you really wouldn't want anything bigger.
Received on Sat Jul 01 2000 - 00:13:42 BST