Value of a small VAX farm

From: Geoff Roberts <geoffrob_at_stmarks.pp.catholic.edu.au>
Date: Thu Mar 8 16:31:48 2001

----- Original Message -----
From: "Will Jennings" <xds_sigma7_at_hotmail.com>
To: <classiccmp_at_classiccmp.org>
Sent: Friday, March 09, 2001 2:34 AM
Subject: Re: Value of a small VAX farm


> Ewww, SCSI drives on a BI machine? Only stuff I use SCSI in is
MicroVAXen
> and lil bitty Alpha's... DSSI or SI is all I'd want for a BI
machine...

Actually, 6K's are an XMI and BI machine, some are XMI only, (I have one
of those, no BI card cage.)
Ok, find me an SDI CDROM and I'll take the SCSI controller out of the
6K-440 in the next room. :^)
Actually, I won't, as it also talks to my 4mm DAT. I don't recall ever
seeing anything in DSSI or SDI for
CD or DAT. (Better yet, find me a SCSI channel card for an HSC70 so I
can put them on the cluster a bit easier)
CPU and RAM in a 6K are XMI only, the 'slow' buss is used by
peripherals, my XMI only box had DSSI, ram, cpus and ethernet adapters
in the XMI cage.
I believe there is now an XMI SCSI card available, but I don't think it
would fit my budget anytime soon.
The only 6K compatible DSSI controller I have (actually in my personal
6K-430) is the XMI one. I currently don't have any
DSSI drives, which is a bit of a shame as I have a DSSI Microvax 3400 -
minus disks - that would love some. They are scarce around here.
My personal 6K also has KDB-50 (BI based SDI) connected to 2 RA90's that
live in the bottom of the cabinet.
DSSI (XMI based) SCSI (Disk only - BI based) and CI (HSC support - BI
based)
All genuine DEC except the SCSI adapter which is a CMD CBI-1000M. I
have one CBI-1000/TM (Tape and disk) - it's in the
machine at work here, and talks to our 4MM DAT and Sony CDROM. I still
have a spare CBI-1000M at home in another cabinet.

It's interesting to note that Ficomp (USA) still list the CMD
CBI-1000/xx Vax SCSI controllers, brand new _at_ $1400US each,
with the (presumably upgraded) CBI-1010/xx _at_ $1900US.

At last count I had 4 6K's at home. Only one is up and going. Of the
others, one has a PSU problem, (must get around to that, plenty of
spares ;^) the others are minus cpus and ram. (Transplanted into my
personal 6K and the machine at work.
I have the innards of another that I scrapped (the dropped off the
forklift one - originally a 6000-240). 2 TA79's (not in use) 2 HSC50's
(not in use), and several drive cabinets with RA70's and RA9x drives
(spares mostly) though some of the RA70's might find their way into
another 6K cabinet. I also have a few RA81's and a couple of 82's, but
don't plan on using them. (The lights dim when they start) I scrapped a
TA78/TU78 pair last year, since the PSU had seriously died in the
master.
Nice air compressors. ;^) I will probably find a use for the vaccuum
pumps one day. Fascinating technology, the entire tape deck runs on air
and vaccuum, even the motors are air driven.

Cheers

Geoff Roberts
Computer Systems Manager
Saint Mark's College
Port Pirie,
South Australia
geoffrob_at_stmarks.pp.catholic.edu.au
netcafe_at_tell.net.au
ICQ: 1970476
Received on Thu Mar 08 2001 - 16:31:48 GMT