Multi-CPU Qbus VAXen

From: Antonio Carlini <arcarlini_at_iee.org>
Date: Mon Oct 13 12:54:15 2003

> No, just four totally seperate 4-slot Q22 backplanes sharing
> a common PSU
> (OK, i'm hardly going for 5x9 uptime and redundancy here!) in
> a largish

Wouldn't this just be essentially 4 BA23s in a rackmount type
of enclosure? If so, they would each have their own PSU. I
don't know about the various configs that DEC sold officially,
but the ones I put together by scrounging round the lab were
always stacks of BA23s and a distribution panel of some sort.

> deskside case and clustered over thinwire - was going to look
> for KA660s
> so I could share a DSSI disk too. Could multiple hosts use a SCSI bus?

AFAICR the KA660 will happily work in a BA23 but if you want DSSI
you need the proper cab kit, which needs a BA2xx or BA4xx case.
So now you are back to back-to-back mounted BA213 or BA430 in a rack.

> Unfortunately the amount of VAXen (and therefore available
> CPUs) over here in the UK is a LOT smaller than in the US!

Nah. You just need to look harder, or more likely, for longer. They
crop up but you have to work at it. There's plenty of stuff on
reseller's shelves and it will all become available over the next
ten to twenty years or so as they close up shop or move on to
other things. The real problem will be what to do when that happens:
do you save both the VAX 8650 and the VAX 9000 and how can you
have them both running on the Internet at the same time.

Of course, if you're not in this for the long haul ... :-)

Antonio
 
-- 
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Antonio Carlini             arcarlini_at_iee.org
Received on Mon Oct 13 2003 - 12:54:15 BST

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