[rescue] Rescued VAX 4500 question

[Stephen D. B. Wolthusen]

Hi,

On 10-Jun-2002 Bill Bradford wrote:
> 
> "Maybe" ?  You definitely dont know much about the other people on this
> list. 8-)

No, sorry. I just stumbled across the list last month in a fit of weakness (my
basement is full already...) at a Sun-affiliated site and saw mainly material
dealing with 90ish Unix hardware. Didn't realize there were other old coots
around. I'm at a research institutions, and mentioning `DEC' to students these
days draws blank stares, plus my XP1000 is the last VMS system in the entire
shop. 

>> even though these systems are of no practical value whatsoever 
>> these days.
> 
> Okay!  Time for a lynching!  Someone get a rope, I'll find a horse.. 8-)
> "no practical value", maybe.  "no practical use", definitely not.
> (and even "value" is debatable; have you seen what -8s go for lately?)

OK, so it doesn't have any applications for me except to keep it operational,
but much of the same is also true for my -11. I got the -8 for the promise to
be good to it about ten years ago, including a crate full of spare parts, a
mint wire-wrap pistol and an ASR-33 that had apparently never been used, kept
under wraps so well that the ribbon was still usable more than 20 years after
it'd left the factory. I'm not at all sure that their new control systems will
putter along for 20 years without a hiccup - or even having to reach into the
parts bin they apparently acquired when the 8/I was EOL'd. 

If anything, eBay has made sure that some folks will rip apart perfectly
operational machines to sell individual boards. That's OK in my book for things
like SBUS cards that are a dime a dozen, but for flip-chips or even QBUS
modules it's a horrible waste. 




-- 

        later,
        Stephen

Stephen Wolthusen (stephen at wolthusen.com)