On 2/11/20 4:05 PM, Ethan Dicks via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
Packing a full VAX into a box the size of suitcase for ~$20,000 was an amazing feat in 1985. We were definitely on the small end of DEC's customers then - we ordered an 11/750 the week they were announced (S/N BT0000354) because the price point was enough below the 11/780 that we could manage it. We also got one of the early 11/730s because, again, the low price point made it affordable for a second VAX in the company. Similarly for the uVAX-I, more because we needed a Qbus VAX for our new Qbus product, but right after we bought a second one (for code development), the uVAX-II came out and we paid the full upgrade price ($17K?) to replace the CPU, disk controller, disk and RAM (and software license!) Totally worth the cost for our needs - we now had a machine that was the fastest number cruncher in the building, and for 1-3 users, it was way faster then our 11/750, for 20% the cost!
Yes, the uVAX-II was slower than the full-sized lineup of the day, but at a hell of a price-performance point.
I have a bare CVAX die in an acrylic block I got at DECUS - "Without Ultrix, it's just a paperweight!"
Nice! Is that actually a CVAX (78034, MicroVAX-3) or a 78032 (MicroVAX-II, -2000, etc)? I've never seen a 78032 paperweight, if that's what it is I'd love to see a picture of it. -Dave -- Dave McGuire, AK4HZ New Kensington, PA