VAX 8600 lot hauled (was: Austin Texas UT Auction)

From: healyzh_at_aracnet.com <(healyzh_at_aracnet.com)>
Date: Wed Jun 13 18:42:46 2001

> Yep. Lots of elbow room. Eventually, I'll get my KDA-50 up and all, but
> for now, it's a nice MFM disk farm.

With a KDA50 a MicroVAX II should be a fairly sweet system, IF you can find
the disks. My MicroVAX III has one in it.

> I would, too, if I had a 4000-class VAX. OTOH, I have some stuff (like
> COMBOARDs) that do not run on 4000-class VAXen because of timeout latency,
> etc. I have recently run across a document I received from a DEC engineer
> years ago where they describe what devices are not rated for use in a
> VAX 4000 because the timeouts had lengthened over the years and over the
> various models. I need to scan this in. We first noticed the problem
> when a VAX 4000 w/TLZ04 and COMBOARD would lock up so tight that we had to
> power off. Turns out the TLZ04 was starving us and the timeout recovery
> mechanism that worked with MicroPDPs and uVAX-II and uVAX-III CPUs changed
> enough with the VAX 4000 to cause serious wedging.

In my case the only 4000's I've got are VAXstation 4000's (VLC, 60, and 90),
but I've been wanting a nice VAX 4000 to replace my MicroVAX III. Now I'm
not so sure. If you get the document scanned in, I'd be *very* interested
in a copy.

> I find _that_ to be the biggest limitation of the uVAX-II - I have enough
> MFM disks to keep my machines working, but since newer versions of VMS
> don't like to fit on an RD54, I'm kinda trapped. I need the older stuff
> for some reasons and I'd love to move to newer stuff for others (mostly
> modern disks and communications devices).

In your case I'd recommend trying to find an ESDI controller, if you don't
already have one. Something like a WQESD/4 (my personal favorite) would
greatly increase your disk capacity. Of course it sounds as if you're
planning on eventually setting it up with a KDA50.

> I have a BA123 that I'm currently setting up as a uVAX-II because that's
> my "biggest" Qbus machine. I expect to recycle its BA23 with a KDF11
> CPU because that's my biggest Qbus PDP-11. Nobody has thrown a newer
> VAX or MicroPDP my way yet (except for the Pro380/Console I rescued from
> work when we dumped the VAX 8530 8 years ago).

My biggest VAX size-wise is my MicroVAX III, it's in a large 3rd Party rack
mount with two RA7x boxes (one has two RA72's the other two RA73's). It
also can have hooked up a pair of RL01's and a pair of RL02's. The downside
is it's currently in the back of my storage unit until I get a house. When
I was running it, it was my PDP-11 Archival system. My longrange plan for
it is to add SCSI and throw on a SCSI 9-Track I've got if possible (had to
give away my TU-81+ thanks to a serious lack of space). I'd planned on
upgrading this system to a VAX 4000 series machine when I got the chance,
now you've got me wondering if a RLV12 will work in a VAX 4000.

                                Zane
Received on Wed Jun 13 2001 - 18:42:46 BST