[rescue] Convex SPP(3?) Worth Saving?

[Corda Albert J DLVA]

Hey guys...
     I have a line on a Convex machine. The current owner is a guy
who attends Govt. auctions and buys bulk, then scraps out stuff for
gold/parts/etc...  He calls me when he finds anything interesting, so...

He says this is a Convex SPP3.  (it's _heavy_... around 400 Lbs.)  I
haven't seen it yet, so I don't know anything more right now. Unfortunately,
I have no knowledge of Convex stuff, and a web search turned up some
Convex SPP stuff, but not much, and _nothing_ on an "SPP3". Can anyone
enlighten me further? (Yep, I know it's an SMP architecture of some sort,
but little more than that).

A couple of questions...
Is this machine historically significant? (I.e. worth saving?)

Does anyone know of a source for documentation? (I've done a prelim.
web/newsgroup search, but haven't turned anything up)

Does anyone have (or know where I can find) a copy of an OS for it
(apparently it's a unix variant.  He told me that the disks were
missing... not unusual for an auction item)

400 lbs is a bit large for me, but if there is a remote
chance I can bring this critter back to life (and it's worth saving)
it's probably worth the effort. I'll going to try to take a look
at it and try to get some sort of model#/ident. Anything
I shouldbe looking out for or wary of?

-al-
-acorda at 1bigred.com