[rescue] Closet cleaning IV

[Carl R. Friend]

   Andrew mentions:

> On Monday, September 8, 2003, at 05:37  PM, James Birdsall wrote:
> 
> > * VAX Hardware Handbook 1982-83 (covers lots and lots of hardware 
> > details of 11/730, 11/750, 11/780, and 11/782)
> >
> Well I got this yesterday... and man I have to say I am now a true 
> believe in all things VAX.  I was reading through the architecture 
> stuff alone and there is stuff in there that Linux is just now trying 
> to add. (re: a recent Linux Journal article on events based kernel 
> scheduling for Telecom and real-time applications)... and this book is 
> a VAX book from 1982.  Preemptive multi-tasking, demand paged virtual 
> memory, etc. etc. etc.

   What's old is new again.  ;-)  Even IBM are bringing back
liquid-cooling.  For an eye-opening read, try the DECsystem-10
Techincal Summary from 1980.  Tens had stuff VAXen never even
got.

   VMS is pretty cool, but the VAX iron suffered very badly from
microcode-induced bloat.  One word:  "poly".

> Very nice stuff.... only problem is ... now I want one..... and they 
> use way too much juice... somehow my dumpster dived Vaxstation just 
> doesn't seem like it's gonna cut it.

   Your VAXstation will probably  outperform the machines listed
above.  Even a little VAXstation 2000 is 90% of the power of a
11/780 (without the wonderful pdp11-compatibility bits, though).
The 11/730 makes for a nice, but pokey, home computer.

> Methinks a 4000/90 would be good.

   Yup.

+------------------------------------------------+---------------------+
| Carl Richard Friend (UNIX Sysadmin)            | West Boylston       |
| Minicomputer Collector / Enthusiast            | Massachusetts, USA  |
| mailto:crfriend at rcn.com                        +---------------------+
| http://users.rcn.com/crfriend/museum           | ICBM: 42:22N 71:47W |
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