[Simh] Re: Welcome to the "Simh" mailing list

[A.Bucher at alcatel.de]

> [..]
>             This made me feel to need a VAX at home - which I finally
> managed around 1992, when lots of those machines where decommissioned. I
> was lucky to get a 11/750, together with a RM80, TE16 (250kg !), Unibus
> Expander, CI, Star Coupler, RA81 Cabinet, etc. I got all those equipment
> set up and running in my garage ! <the story may be continued upon
request
> :-)>

Send Pix. ;-)


arrgh. this was at a time when digital cams where not so common.
I am not sure if I ever took any photos at that time. Didn't really think
for that then - I was busy getting the parts together ... but I remember
some photos I took of the systems I had later, so I will dig those up !

therefore, some more of the story first:

Like, in the beginning, I had a 11/750 CPU with MASSBUS option and a RM80,
but no Media Pack. Also the TE16, but no  VMS Tape. And some RA81s, but no
UDA50 ... And a CI and Star Coupler, but no HSC50 (for the RAs)... shit, eh
?

After some time, I managed to get some RM80 Media packs from somewhere
else. The beast booted up, showed the "Starting VMS" message - and had a
head crash !! That made me upset, as you might imagine ... and I scrapped
the RM80, since there was no hope of repair at that time.

Again, some time passed until I found someone willing to give a surplus
UDA50 away ! Now, the fun started: Connect the CPU to one power outlet
(1100W), one RA81 to another (more 1000W, plus 2kw peak at spin up), and
the TE16 to the third (next 900W), plus the VT100 to another one, just to
be on the safe side and not to blow any fuse - required lots of extension
cords, this installation ! Then, put all cables together, sleep some nights
on the Unibus configs (address, vectors, etc), throw out all unused Unibus
and other boards (like CI-Connect) to save power, fiddle around with
unmarked TU58 console tapes - and finally, I got VMS 4.7 up and running (it
was installed on the RA81). Imagine, running a computer system once worth
about $250k (or more ?) in you own home ! Just great !

When I got bored some months ago, I performed a system upgade to VMS5.0 and
later to 5.1. each took several hours with the TE16.

Some time after, I aquired a 11/730 and connected both using a async serial
port as network.

Then, I got an offer for another 11/750, this time with the special max
memory upgrade and ethernet !! 2 Board with 4MB each, plus 6x 1MB - 14 MB -
wow ! But this offer was an option for the future, I sold the first 750 to
get free space, together with the CI, unibus Expansion, SC and some Disks,
kept the 730 in order not to suffer without a VAX at home :-)

Then, finally, I got the new 750, plus 2 cabinets with RA82 - 625 MB each
!! It had a TA81 tape, which was useless, since I had no HSC. Again, I was
lucky and found a company selling a TU81, which then replaced the TA.

Next aquisition was just another 730, which "forced" me to sell the first
one. Since I had ethernet now on the 750 (and some surplus thickwire and
trasceivers), I could build up an real ethernet and connect some VS2000, a
uVAXII and a PC or another (DECNet with DOS ... either you could run the
net, or the applications). I had a ethernet cluster with the 750 and the
uVAX, and a DECnet with all systems, mixed ethernet and serial connections.

Well, I kept this configuration for some time, unil I bought another
uVAX3500 (later replaced by an 3800 and 3900), sold the 750 and 730 and
later the big RA disks, because I could make some good money with them to
compensate for the uVAXes, and I needed to free up some space to replace
the VAXen with pinballs ...

The funny part with the 11/750 and 730 is: Some 6 (!) years after I've sold
them, I got them back from just the same guy as scrap (free of charge, I
mean) ! He did not even recognize that I was the same person having sold
the systems to him, and he never managed to get the VAX together and
running, just kept the cabinets in an old, humid storage room.
After taking the VAXen "home" again, I tried them both, and despite the
fact the the cabinets were stored for 6 years unused, they started up at
the first try !!

But since I had no more space, I urgently had to sell them - later, I very
much regretted that, but there was no choice. I gave the 750 and TE16 to
guy who later turned out to be a big dope ... he still ows me the money for
the computer, plus half of the hardware docs (circuit diagrams of all
boards !!) and TU58 tapes I borrowed him.

The 11/750 with TE16 was shown at the VCFE 1.0 in Munich, Germany - I did
the system installation and presentation there - and won the first price
for beeing the "largest and most impressive system shown" (despite the fact
that it did not boot, 'cause the stupid one mentioned before had damaged it
trying to get it running before I showed up ...)
But only offline mounting a tape reel on the TE16 with the vacuum buffer
chambers stole the show off all the other systems !!

I don't know what happened to the system later, since the guy played "dead"
on all contact attempts, and I never found the time to attend to the VCFE
again.

That's the story of my big VAXs - now you can imagine why I am "playing"
around with SIMH :-)
(I just had to write it down, in order to remember the whole "affair" :-)

regards,
Andreas