Hi folks,
Just thought I'd report in after an excellent couple of days on the vintage
trail! Yesterday gave me a genuine MicroVAX I with a fully stuffed backplane
I haven't investigated yet, though there's definitely the 2-card CPU,
memory, RQDX disk controller (for the RD52) installed and a 4-line serial
option which will probably be a DHV11. I'll find out tomorrow. The system
came with a Tektronix 4019 colour display which is the biggest monitor
(physically) I've ever laid eyes on I think, complete with keyboard and
drawing tablet. Not sure what I'm going to do with it as yet - it's got to
be a 19" screen! Apparently the RD52 has some sort of CAD package installed
so I'll find out hopefully once the machine's stabilised itself to the house
temperature.
Also in the bundle was a boxful of Tangerine Microtan 65 bits including the
machine itself (with TANEX expansion) in a lovely home-made wooden box, what
looks suspiciously like an Apple ][ keyboard, full documentation and the
first 30 or so issues of the Tangerine User Group magazine. More on that
later. There's a handful of DEC cards too:
M7944 x2 - 4K RAM
M7680/M7681 - RK05 control cards
M7258 - LP11 driver
M7860 - DR11 driver
as well as a 4-slot self-contained backplane containing:
M7270 - KD11-HA LSI 11/2 CPU
M7944 x2 - 4K RAM
M8027 - LPV11 driver.
Also several copies of the MicroVAX II diagnostic kit on RX50 and RX33
floppies as well as (I think) most of VMS V5 on RX50. I don't think there's
enough disks for it to be a complete set :-/
Today brought a couple of visits, one to see Nick Toop who some of you may
know was involved with many early UK home computing projects including the
Science of Cambridge MK14 (supporting hardware), Acorn Atom (designer) and
the should-have-been-venerable Enterprise 64 (graphics chip and supporting
hardware). Lovely bloke - he sorted out my 'suspect' Atom and brought it
back to life! Excellent.
Second visit was to help Kevan Heydon of this 'ere list empty some of his
garage with Jules Richardson, so new museum additions are a cased Ohio
Superboard II (with docs), Memotech RS128 with FDX floppy subsystem (yay!),
boxed NeXT Station (double yay!), 2nd Microtan 65 with extended backplane
and more cards, and a CST Thor - Sinclair QL that's been massively expanded
and recased. Thanks Kevan :)
Faaaaaaantastic! Now where is it all going to go....
--
Adrian/Witchy
www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk - possibly the UK's biggest online computer museum
www.snakebiteandblack.co.uk - ex-monthly gothic shenanigans :o(
Received on Wed Jan 14 2004 - 19:15:51 GMT