[geeks] MicroVAX II: making it complete

[Jochen Kunz]

On 2002.01.04 13:00 William S. wrote:

> I am being offered a MicroVAX II for free. 
Get it!

> It is equipped as follows:
> 
> M7606 - MS630 CPU
> M7609 - MS630 Memory 8Mb
> M7609 - MS630  "      "
Nice. 16MB is the maximum so the 8MB Boards are in demand. 

> M3104 - DHV11 Serial lines + bulkhead
I think it is impossible to get a MV II/III without that... ;-)

> M7555 - RQDX3 Floppy & Harddrive interface
The usual...

> In addition he has added an extra M3104 and a drive slide for the RD5x
> or ST205. It is in the BA23 rack enclosure.
> 
> My goal is to get it up and running OpenVMS which is now
> available only as a CD.
Why not NetBSD or 4.3BSD-Tahoe? OK, OK, OK. I said nothing. ;-)

> I am wondering in the end if this is going to end up costing
> me more than it is worth to get the additional components
> it needs:
> 
> 1. Harddrive- Which model should I get and how much will
>    it cost me (in Europe)? Hard to find?
Quite hard. The RQDX3 accepts only a few drives and they need to be
preformated. (PDP11 or VAXstation / MicroVAX2 2000 needed) Have a look
at: http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/academic/computer-science/history/pdp-11/hardware/third-party-disks.txt

> 2. CD-ROM- Model and cost ? Hard to find?
Nearly impossible. The easiest way would be a MSCP to SCSI adapter, that
masks a SCSI CDROM as a generic MSCP disk. This would also solve you
disk problem. But this adapters are very rare and hard to find.

> 3. Dumb Terminal- You have a favorite to recommend?
Anything that is VT100 compatible will do the job. My favorites are the
VT320 and VT420.

You may add:
4. DELQA Qbus ethernet adapter (M7516 or M3127)

5. TK50 or better TK70 tape drive and coresponding TQK50 (M7546) or
TQK70 (M7559) QBus adapter.

> Am I better off just waiting to see what turns up
> in a VAX that is already operating?
Get what you can get. If it is somthing missing, the missing parts will
run across your way. Believe me. VAXen have some kind of magic magnetism
and attract each other. ;-)
-- 



tsch|_,
         Jochen

Homepage: http://www.unixag-kl.fh-kl.de/~jkunz/