[rescue] DEC12000 masPar

[John Francini]

On 24 Feb 2020, at 17:21, Mouse <mouse at Rodents-Montreal.ORG> wrote:
>
>>>> That system has been on eBay for at least a decade that I know of.
>>> Probably because they're expecting half a million dollars for
>>> something of that vintage when it's really worth maybe $2000
>> For something that rare, it's not possible to establish a "market
>> value".
>
> Indeed.
>
>> It's worth whatever someone is willing to pay for it.  If some rich
>> collector wakes up one day and decides he/she needs to have one, it
>> will go for a lot more than $2K.  If not, there it will sit.
>
> If someone with a high-value product with certifications running on one
> has their hardware break, half a million may be chump change compared
> to the costs of porting/rewriting the software and re-getting assorted
> certifications for the new system.
>
> Of course, that's total speculation.  I have no specific reason to
> think such a `someone' exists.

Think 'nuclear power plant'. Typically nothing can be changed - including
computer systems - in a plant for the entirety of its certification life.

Back in the day at Digital (say around 1995), we heard about a nuclear plant
in Italy that was still running a VAX 11/780 with VMS V1.7. (This is when the
then-current version was 6.0).
DEC Field Service was buying 11/780 parts from 3rd party parts-and-systems
brokers - at top dollar - to keep that machine going.

I wonder if that plant is still running that VAX?

John