VAXen architecture (Re: [SunRescue] Sun4c support dropped in Solaris 8?)

[Bjrn Ramqvist]

Dave McGuire wrote:
> 
>   The VAX *architecture* was a successor to the PDP11 architecture.
> Implementations of that architecture overlapped for [what is now] most
> of their lifetimes.
> 
>   They share architectural roots and philosophies, but they're still
> quite a bit different.  Both truly wonderful (and historically
> important) architectures in my opinion, and very much worthy of
> study.
> 
>   And the later, more modern VAXen are still quite viable as a
> computing platform.

Oh yes. I even have the wonderful opportunity to play around with a nice
big VAX 7000-610 down at our computer club.
Anders Magnusson, the port maintainer of NetBSD/VAX, wanted to port
NetBSD to it. Sure. :-)
91MHz CPUs (if I remember correctly), upto 6 of'em. 256MB, with gigs of
RAM as maximum. Wonderful piece of machinery.
Infact, you can even pop out those VAX-CPUs and put in Alpha's, right
out of the box. No other hardware swapping.
Cool thing is, that even todays Alpha 8400/GS140 systems use the same
cabinet, the same type of cardcage (LSB, although a bit faster), power
supplies and everything... makes on expandable system. :-)

I'll grab some pictures of it, if anybody wants...

	/Regards, Bjorn