Paul Winalski:
That was the VAXstation-11/RC.
===
Yep, that's the name.
My first batch of discarded MicroVAX IIs were the original
backbone routers for a large university campus, installed
ca. 1990. That backbone ran over serial-line connections,
at 56Kbps, which was quite impressive for the day given the
physical distances involved.
Either they had a bunch of Qbus backplanes lying around, or
someone computed that the cost of an 11/RC plus a backplane
was appreciably less than a system with an unobstructed
backplane. In any case, they swapped most of the backplanes
themselves. The one I got that still had the glue in was an
anomaly; maybe it was a spare chassis.
The MicroVAX routers ran Ultrix, and some of them had uptimes
of five years when they were finally shut down to be discarded.
All the hardware I rescued tested out fine, and some of it is
still running happily in my basement. I've had a few disk
failures over the years, and I think lost one power supply
back around Y2K and maybe had a DZV11 fail, but that's it.
We don't make hardware like that any more.
Norman Wilson
Toronto ON
Paul Winalski:
Rather than design a new
CPU, they just put NOPs in the Skipjack microcode to slow it down.
The official code name for this machine was Flounder, but within DEC
engineering we called it "Wimpjack". Customers could buy a field
upgrade for Flounder microcode that restored it to Skipjack
performance levels.
====
As I remember it, once it came out that the upgrade
merely removed gratuitous nops, customers raised sufficient
fuss that the denopped microcode was made available for
free (perhaps only to those with service contracts) and
Flounder (VAX 8500) was no longer sold.
Norman Wilson
Toronto ON
Ron Minnich:
Jon Hall used to love telling the story of the VAX backplane with the glue
in the board slots, which clever customers managed to damage and have
repaired with a non-glued-up backplane.
=====
It wasn't exactly a VAX backplane; it was a QBus backplane,
though I don't know whether this marketing-induced castration
was performed on anywhere but on the backplaces of certain
MicroVAX models.
I think one of my saved-from-the-dumpster BA23s had one
of those backplanes. I just declared it to be a source
of spare parts, other than backplanes.
Norman Wilson
Toronto ON
Grant Taylor:
Why do you have to give up one tool to start using a different tool?
====
I hereby declare this part of the conversation very much
on-topic for TUHS.
The question of what tools should exist, what should do what,
whether to make a new tool or add something to an existing
one, is a continuing thread in the history of UNIX and its
use and abuse.
Norman Wilson
Toronto ON
Over the last few years I’ve photographed many of the people listed on the wiki.
You can see the photos here:
http://facesofopensource.com
-P-
--
Peter Adams
http://www.peteradamsphoto.com
> On Jun 22, 2018, at 7:32 PM, Warren Toomey <wkt(a)tuhs.org> wrote:
>
> All, I've had a fair bit of positive feedback for my TUHS work. In reality
> I'm just the facilitator, collecting the stuff that you send me and keeping
> the mailing list going.
>
> I think we've captured nearly all we can of the 1970s Unix in terms of
> software. After that it becomes commercial, but I am building up the
> "Hidden Unix" archive to hold that. Just wish I could open that up ...
>
> What we haven't done a good job yet is to collect other things: photos,
> stories, anecdotes, scanned ephemera.
>
> Photos & scanned things: I'm very happy to collect these, but does anybody
> know of an existing place that accepts (and makes available online) photos
> and scanned ephemera? They are a bit out of scope for bitsavers as far as
> I can tell, but I'm happy to be corrected. Al? Other comments here?
>
> Stories & anecdotes: definitely type them in & e-mail them in and/or e-mail
> them to me if you want me just to preserve them. There is the Unix wiki I
> started here: https://wiki.tuhs.org/doku.php?id=start, but maybe there is
> already a better place. Gunkies?
>
> Interviews: Sometimes it's easier to glean stories & knowledge with interviews.
> I've never tried this but perhaps it's time. Who is up to have an audio
> interview? I'll worry about the technical details eventually, but is there
> interest?
>
> All of the above would slot in with the upcoming 50th anniversary. If you
> do have photos, bits of paper, stories to tell etc., then let's try to
> preserve them so that they are not lost.
>
> Cheers all, Warren
>
All, I've had a fair bit of positive feedback for my TUHS work. In reality
I'm just the facilitator, collecting the stuff that you send me and keeping
the mailing list going.
I think we've captured nearly all we can of the 1970s Unix in terms of
software. After that it becomes commercial, but I am building up the
"Hidden Unix" archive to hold that. Just wish I could open that up ...
What we haven't done a good job yet is to collect other things: photos,
stories, anecdotes, scanned ephemera.
Photos & scanned things: I'm very happy to collect these, but does anybody
know of an existing place that accepts (and makes available online) photos
and scanned ephemera? They are a bit out of scope for bitsavers as far as
I can tell, but I'm happy to be corrected. Al? Other comments here?
Stories & anecdotes: definitely type them in & e-mail them in and/or e-mail
them to me if you want me just to preserve them. There is the Unix wiki I
started here: https://wiki.tuhs.org/doku.php?id=start, but maybe there is
already a better place. Gunkies?
Interviews: Sometimes it's easier to glean stories & knowledge with interviews.
I've never tried this but perhaps it's time. Who is up to have an audio
interview? I'll worry about the technical details eventually, but is there
interest?
All of the above would slot in with the upcoming 50th anniversary. If you
do have photos, bits of paper, stories to tell etc., then let's try to
preserve them so that they are not lost.
Cheers all, Warren
> From: "John P. Linderman"
> 4 bucks a bit!
When IBM went to license the core patent(s?) from MIT, they offered MIT a
choice of a large lump sump (the number US$20M sticks in my mind), or US$.01 a
bit.
The negotiators from MIT took the lump sum.
When I first heard this story, I thought it was corrupt folklore, but I later
found it in one of the IBM histories.
This story repets itself over and over again, though: one of the Watson's
saying there was a probably market for <single-digit> of computers; Ken Olsen
saying people wouldn't want computers in their homes; etc, etc.
Noel
[ A few list members asked me to re-post this out of the existing
thread, so that it is more prominent. ]
All, based on the comments we've had in the past day or so, it seems that
you are mostly happy to stick with one list, and to tolerate a bit of
off-topic material.
I'm also aware that this list is approaching its own quarter-century
anniversary and it has become an important historical record.
So feel free to drift away from Unix now and then. But please self-regulate:
if you (as an individual) think the S/N ratio is dropping, please ask the
list to improve it.
As always, I'll insert my own nudges and requests based on my own eclectic
set of rules :-)
Cheers all, Warren
Because some "off-topic" discussions wander into estoterica that's beyond
me, I superficially thought an off-topic siding would be a good thing for
some trains of thought. But then I wondered, if I ignore the siding how
will I hear of new hear about new topics that get initiated there? I could
miss good stuff. So I'm quite happy with the current arrangement where
occasionally ever-patient Warren gives a nudge. (I'm a digest reader. If
every posting came as a distinct message, I might feel otherwise.)
Doug
