[vcf-midatlantic] Trade / wish list for the Feb 26th swap meet?

Dave McGuire mcguire at neurotica.com
Sun Jan 30 19:08:52 UTC 2022


On 1/30/22 1:59 PM, Andrew Diller wrote:
>>   Interestingly, there are TWO KA630/M7606 (MicroVAX-II) processor boards in those pictures.  Are they both installed in the machine?  If so, that won't work.
> 
> No just one. I don't recall which. The other was part of another system.

   Ah, ok.  They look different, as they're different etch revisions, 
but they're interchangeable, and identical for all practical purposes. 
So, if you got them mixed up at one point, don't worry about it.

>>   The drive in that machine is an RD54, aka Maxtor XT-2190.  I think those things will probably live forever. ;) (as opposed to the RD53..)
> 
> OK, good to know. I sort of wanted an excuse to get the Gesswein, this was the only MFM system I have, so it got it :) Sometimes I'm more interested in the modern perhs. than the systems themselves....

   Perfectly reasonable.  And RD54s are LOUD, as 5.25" drives go.

   For several years a few decades ago, I ran a MicroVAX-II in my 
bedroom.  It was built in a hand-built, internal DEC prototype of the 
chassis that you have (BA123 "World Box"), that's much smaller, has only 
eight slots, and has a beautiful oak top.  I still have that chassis 
here near my desk.  (I actually have two of them, but one is missing its 
side cover)

   It had an RD54 in it, and when I moved from VMS to Ultrix, the 
midnight cron jobs, which involved quite a bit of disk activity, would 
wake me up after I'd been asleep for a little less than an hour.  That 
was before I ditched working for suits and still had to get up at 
oh-God-thirty in the morning.

   Eventually I got used to it and was able to sleep through the 
chitter-chitter-buzz of the RD54.

            -Dave

-- 
Dave McGuire, AK4HZ
New Kensington, PA


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