Anyone collect Dec/Compaq Alphaservers or VAXen?

[Allison]

>
>Subject: RE: Anyone collect Dec/Compaq Alphaservers or VAXen?
>   From: "Rod Smallwood" <RodSmallwood at mail.ediconsulting.co.uk>
>   Date: Wed, 03 Oct 2007 07:00:06 +0100
>     To: "General Discussion: On-Topic Posts Only" <cctech at classiccmp.org>
>
>
>Now there's a story. ...

Only part of it.  Both MicroVAX-IIs were enabled by DEC but at the time 
were minimal machines (BA23 had RD53 and BA123 only had RD54).  It was 
post DEC and many finds later they became filled with ram and better disks.
the big thig was not the hardware but a set of TK50s with V5.44 and 
a nontransferable non expiring license for it and all the layered apps.
VIDSYS:: is a 5.44 node for that reason with things like Pathworks
and VAXnotes.

The 11T03 was exactly that, the big find if one was the RL02/RL21 in it.
Years later (post DEC) I put in 11/23B, then 11/73, more ram and built
the MFM disk shelf supported by RQDX3.

>Luckily (or unluckily) I had moved on from DEC by 1985 so I was not a
>witness to its sad demise.

It was bloody.

>Better made products you could not want for. 
>
>Despite having worked with PC's for many years. I could never see how
>they became preferred over central unit plus terminals for general
>business use.

We agree. IN reality they did exactly that.  Save for the central system
is now called "server" and the terminals are smarter.

>My modest collection has beeen accrued of the last couple of years.
>Apart from the 11/94's 
>(Some potato head stole the CPU cards before I got to the machines) the
>rest of it is running/will run. I need KDJ 11 processors for the
>11/94's. They are expensive and even those intended for 11/84's are
>silly prices. 

Yes even Qbus J-11 cpus are scarce.

>I also have three small Sun systems (I can't resist quality engineering)

I had suns as well and gave them away to concentrate more on DEC and the 
CP/M systems.

Allison



>
>Rod
>
>
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org
>[mailto:cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Allison
>Sent: 02 October 2007 14:46
>To: cctech at classiccmp.org
>Subject: RE: Anyone collect Dec/Compaq Alphaservers or VAXen?
>
>>
>>Subject: RE: Anyone collect Dec/Compaq Alphaservers or VAXen?
>>   From: "Rod Smallwood" <RodSmallwood at mail.ediconsulting.co.uk>
>>   Date: Tue, 02 Oct 2007 07:08:33 +0100
>>     To: "General Discussion: On-Topic Posts Only" 
>><cctech at classiccmp.org>
>>
>>Hmmm
>>   Time for a quick 'We are not worthy' ^00^
>
>Consider my leg pulled. :)
>
>>
>>What did you do?
>>Raid the Mill with a fleet of trucks?
>
>No.  I did get some small amounts of odd items from DEC salvage before
>it was shut down.  Mostly things like H751A power controllers, power
>supplies and TU58 drives and boards.
>
>The one uVII (BA123 VIDSYS::) was a parting gift(I paid 100$ for it with
>DOCS and licenses) during the days of blood. For those that don't
>understand the post 1991 sell off of parts of DEC, that's when the
>DIGITAL logo went from blue to burgandy.  The other was built from
>scrounge.  VIDSYS:: is still setup for DECnet area 56.920 (one area in
>OGO was 56) and HIPPY:: was area 63.390 (hidden area for DECnet
>overflow).
>
>My 11T03 which is now the 11/73 was a gift from my boss at DEC.  I kept
>it in the lab area for years for those odd projects but by late 80s it
>was obvious it was getting used less and less.  He suggested "when are
>you going to scrap that thing?" I bring it home (on property pass) which
>I did.  A year later when it was time to confirm and renew the property
>pass his answer was "what 11?".
>
>The remainder were mostly rescues.  The bulk of the uVAX3100s came from
>UV Waterloo over 10 years ago on a if you take one you take them all and
>I was the only one willing to take a huge pile of uVAX3100s plus cables,
>VT320s VS2000s, TK50s, several TLZ04s.. Took two seperate 400mile round
>trips with a pickup truck filled to capacity.
>A fair number of those got redistributed to others as sixteen uVax3100s
>take a bit of space.
>
>The rest are also rescues from various seperate trips.  
>
>Usually if the system is incomplete I jump on it and clean it up and
>restore it to life from spares.  The few pending systems are due to my
>activities in amateur radio this year and now that I'm done with the
>bigger projects it's back to machines.
>
>I don't do Ubus-11s, big VAX (780s and the like) and unfortunately
>PDP-10/20s as most are too large to handle or power here.  Also I've
>reached the point where excess do get passed on to others as I don't
>store any large number of systems either.  I try to manage my
>collection. Those excess sometimes get cleaned up board added and moved
>along so they are operable and don't end up in the trash or worse.  I
>like to power them up and play and that's incompatable with storage.
>There are a few small items like extra VT320s (white, green and amber),
>VT100s, H19, DECMate-IIIs I keep in the garage on rotation but I can and
>do run them there as well as it's warm enough in the winter and very
>dry. I keep those out there mostly to make it easier to move other stuff
>around in the room. What seperates me from museum is I use them,
>reconfigure and expand them them to suit my wishes or for fun. However,
>junking them is out of the questionas even basket cases are salvaged for
>any and all usable parts.
>
>FYI: if anyone needs parts for PDT11/1xx systems I have many CPU, memory
>and IO boards I'm not ever going to use.  Someone took a bunch apart and
>then later gave me the box of boards.  (ugly mutter mutter cuss cuss.)
>
>I mostly do DEC and CP/M based systems (s100, totables, SBCs) but I do
>have a few oddballs.  For some reason the MIPS based DEC hardware never
>got my attention nor have the PC/clone(intel) based systems like Rainbow
>and VAXmate.  I did have PROs (350s and 380s) but gave those away to
>concentrate on Qbus. 
>
>
>Allison
>
>>
>>Rod
>>
>>-----Original Message-----
>>From: cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org
>>[mailto:cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Allison
>>Sent: 01 October 2007 15:47
>>To: cctech at classiccmp.org
>>Subject: RE: Anyone collect Dec/Compaq Alphaservers or VAXen?
>>
>>>
>>>Subject: RE: Anyone collect Dec/Compaq Alphaservers or VAXen?
>>>   From: "Rod Smallwood" <RodSmallwood at mail.ediconsulting.co.uk>
>>>   Date: Mon, 01 Oct 2007 08:00:44 +0100
>>>     To: "General Discussion: On-Topic Posts Only" 
>>><cctech at classiccmp.org>
>>>
>>>
>>>My list
>>>	pdp11/94 x 4	R
>>>
>>>	DEC Rainbow 100+  *
>>>
>>>      VAX 300		*
>>>	VAX 400		*
>>>	VAX 500		R
>>>	VAXStation 3100	*
>>>
>>>	DEC 3000 		* 
>>>
>>>	Multia		*
>>>
>>>* = Working
>>>R = Renovation (Mostly missing parts)	
>>>
>>>Rod Smallwood
>>
>>
>>A more detailed list of DEC systems here.  :)
>>
>>
>>Collection of operational hardware:
>>
>>PDP-8 based machines:
>>====================
>>  PDP-8f, 20k core and 2 serial 8650 and 8652
>>2 Decmate-IIIs OS/278
>>  Intersil sampler (6100 chipset) extended to 3k ram
>>  6120 based board, homebrew 32kram 8k rom
>>
>>PDP-11 based machines:
>>=====================
>>1 LSI-11/03 rx02
>>2 PDP11/23 BA11S boxes, 
>>   1MB, RQDX2 and RD52
>>   1MB, RQDX2 and RD31, RX50
>>1 pdp11/73 50" RACK SYSTEM (4MB, DLVJ11, DEQNA, RQDX3>> RX02, RD52,
>>RX33, RL02).
>>1 BA11va with 11/23 +tu58  RT-11
>>1 BA11va with 11/23 +Viking RX02 equivilent RT-11
>>  PDT11/130 11/03 with tu58 dectapeII
>>  OSs in use: RT-11, XXDP-11 and unix V6
>>
>>VAX based machines:
>>===================
>>  Microvax-II (ba23 based) 12mb, RQDX3, RD53, RX33
>>    This one lived as HIPSS:: during my days at DEC.
>>  Microvax-II/GPX (Ba123 based, TK50 and SCSI disks)
>>    This one was know as VIDSYS:: inside DEC.
>>3 Microvax2000 all with 2 RD53, 1 RD54 drive, one with ultrix
>>1 Microvax2000 as hard disk formatter and MOP bootable system.
>>2 Microvax3100/m76/gpx 32mb 2 each 1gb scsi internal
>>3 Microvax3100/server (not M10e) (filled with 400mb and 1gb disks)
>>4 BA42  SCSI disk farm for the 3100s populated with RZ56s
>>  OSs in use VMSv5.4-4,V5.54, V7.2, Ultrix 4.2
>>
>>Terminal for the uVAX systems is usually VT1200 via thinnet and the
>>PDP-11s the usual terminal is either VT340, VT320 or VT180 in terminal
>>mode.
>>
>>DEC CP/M speaking machines:
>>===========================
>>1 Vt180 complete (dual RX180s)
>>2 Vt180 CP/M board built up as standalone one modded for 6mhz
>>1 Vt185 Thats a Vt125 + Vt180.
>>
>>In the non operational list:
>>
>>11/23B uPDP-11 in a BA23 pedestal that while complete with 11/23B,
>>M8057 memory, DHV11, RQDX2 and RD52, RX50 it requries cleaning and
>>testing.
>>
>>H11 Backplane complete with LSI-11 CPU, 16k of ram, two serial cards
>and
>>a parallel card of heath origin.  Some day I'll find the case/power
>>supply for it.  All parts are tested as working.
>>
>>Small 11/23 system using a H9281-BC (12x2 slots) filled with:
>>    M8186 1/23 (Overclocked CPU mod)
>>  4 M8059 MSV11 ram
>>    DLV11j, 
>>    RQDX3 with M9058 distribution board. (for RX33 and RD31)
>>    MRV-11 Eprom card with MSCP boot.
>>    VK170 with matching LK02 keyboard and a monitor. The VK170 
>>      is a minimal VT52 on a dual width card for packaged systems
>>      that communicates via RS232 to system and the bus use is 
>>      power only.
>>This is waiting on being packed in a reasonable nonDEC box with a DEC
>PS
>>and fans.  The boards are known working and the backplane is already
>>jumpered as Q22. 
>>
>>Generally in my house operational means I can actually turn it on and
>>play and it has a permanent spot that is easily accessable.
>>
>>One project that is in process is a H9800 desk/rack that will replace
>>the existing standard steel office desk. the system to be installed
>>there will be 11/23B in BA11s with a hand made Disk box for RX33 and
>>RD52s.
>>
>>I have two boxes (Xerox Paper sized) of tested boards enough to build
>>another few 11/23s and a few uVAXII as my spares.  Failed boards get
>>repaird when I feel like it so I have good boards around.
>>
>>Who was it that has the SIG of
>> "DEC had then what you wish you could buy now." ?
>>
>>Allison
>>
>>
>>
>>
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