How uncommon are DEC racks these days

[Allison]

>
>Subject: How uncommon are DEC racks these days
>   From: john ball <ballsandy at msn.com>
>   Date: Tue, 25 Dec 2007 23:44:43 -0200
>     To: <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
>
>
>I have had my fun with Unix boxes but I think it's time to try something a 
little older and more complex.
>I first thought about looking for an older IBM mainframe like the system/36
 but my chances of finding one were pretty much slim to none so I then 
thought about the computers that DIGITAL made. Yes it would be fantastic 
to own something like a PDP-12 rack (how often do you see a bright green 
computer these days?) but knowing how my luck is almost never with me I 
would have to settle with something smaller. That returns me to my chances 
of finding a PDP. I live in Western Canada and so far it has been hard 
enough just finding a SPARCstation 1+ so I assume that something like a 
PDP will be even harder. How common are DEC's these days and where are 
they usually found and how much do they usually go for if any price at 
all?

PDP-12s are rare.  there were very few made and fewer available.  Estimates are 
around a dozen around.

More likely candidates and PDP-10 (later models), PDP-11s.


>It would be a rather nice (but late) christmas present to myself.

You can find PDP-11s easily enough, PDP-8 of the omnibus era are easy 
to find earlier 8s are much fewer.  In the PDP10 realm the later '10s
(system 20s) are still findable though there were not all that many 
made in that family.

So the likely candidates in order of most frequently found/bought to least.

You can buy or find these fairly cheap
=======================================
microVAX (all sorts and easily found)
PDP-11 (qbus) very common
PDP-11 Unibus 
PDP-8[E,F,M,a] omnibus 
VAX 750 and 730s

Good luck!
============
VAX (78x series, )
PDP-8 earlier [L, I, and straight] 
PDP10 (system 20 later models)

Everything else is scarce to rare or only a few left on earth.
What differentiates them is production volumes.  Some the volumes were 
very small like a PDP-6 where there were something less than 10 made.


Allison


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