heck, are 11/785s extinct?

From: Carlini, Antonio <Antonio.Carlini_at_riverstonenet.com>
Date: Wed Jul 25 16:04:23 2001

>more to the point :-). I had very little feedback. One from one

        There may not be many 11/78x machines in hobbyist hands.
        There may not be too many corporations subscribed to
        this list :-)

        It took me many years (admittedly in the UK) before
        I came across a uPDP-11. I've never seen a Robin (hint,hint...).
        You need to be patient. In my experience, the docs and
        hardware will come along at different times - never
        turn down an incomplete package (I'm preaching to
        the converted here since you have the innards
        already !).

        How many VAX-11/78x machines were produced?
        These days you expect that thousands of any machine would
        be sold (except maybe the specialised supercomputers).
        I believe that for the VAX 9000 series, only 400-500 made
        it out of the door. The same order of magnitude may well
        be true for the VAX-11/78x systems.

        How long have people been collecting such
        large machines? I don't have the room -
        I could not realistically find room for a VAX 4000
        right now, never mind anything bigger!
         

>9 months ago :-). However, I have indication that my 11/785 boards
>won't work on the 11/780 backplane. So, I'm still desperately
>looking for a 11/785. I would be a lot more patient if I saw those

        I don't know anything about the 11/780 => 11/785
        upgrade but I would be surprised if the backplane
        had to be replaced.

>in the first place. Where are they?

        They may all be in dealers wharehouses and defence
        sites and nuclear power stations. I did hear of three
        being decommissioned in the UK a few years ago
        but that's about it.

>get some leads to follow. The underlying assumption being that
>there is one 11/785 recycled as scrapmetal every month that I don't
>find it.

        I suspect the underlying assumption is just that
        there are not that many of the beasts still around.
        I guess by the time I have the room for one of
        these, there won't be any left!

        Antonio
Received on Wed Jul 25 2001 - 16:04:23 BST