HP/DEC/Compaq

I was walking down the hall in the Tech building at the university and spotted this sitting in the hallway.


Curious, I ask the guy in charge of recycling if it was being moved or something and he responded with "nah, it's being recycled. You want it?"
After some swearing, bolt fumbling and a lot of heavy lifting I got it all in the car sans the rack and the power distribution strip inside the rack (apparently one of the teachers wanted to use it (rack and power bar) and the rails for an A/V rack which was sad as the thing looked really nice and had HEWLETT PACKARD on the top though I was able to keep the nice sliding rails for the system.)
After dragging it home I looked it all over again:








Okay, so we got the main box which has a single processor, two raid cards, and some ram in it as well as at least one hard drive so there is a chance there is a salvageable OS on that.
There was also some funky board that connected to the UPS and I guess a phone line, probably to call a pager or something.
Next there is the two disk arrays which are pretty much full of small High voltage differential drives so I don't know what to do there....
Finally there is the UPS and it's a monster. The Inverter and the two batteries must weigh 400 pounds alone.
Geez, now that I got this and a few cables, what exactly can be done with it? I know I have to find a new rack for it (ugh....) but what use is HP-UX, if that is still on the drive?
I think my one real concern id that I need a 20A 220v line. This certainly is some serious hardware.

HP/UX is an excellent OS. Did you talk the opportunity of the offer....?

http://forums.nekochan.net/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=10771&start=0

Bah, I heard about that but that was just when I was getting into obscure hardware so no I didn't take up on that offer. :<

Edit: oh, and judging from the yelling I am receiving from my dad, it needs to be out of the living room immediately. this is going to eb a fun noght. Now he'' be asking me 20 questions about why I need it (actually, I don't know why I need it but it's too late now).

EDIT: Crap, I can hear him slamming doors and yelling. I think this was a REALLY bad idea.

EDIT: Bad idea it was. I have to get it out of my fathers sight before dawn or else it is off to the scrappers tomorrow weather I like it or not.

I've had days like this... but not in the last 15 years or so...

Wow, things change quickly, it was almost recycled, but after you managed to save it from the recyclers it then gets scrapped.

Very few households recommend using the living rooms as storage areas.

The BIGGEST computer I was ever allowed in a living (mine or otherwise) would be my PS3. No computers allowed on the main floor, everything in the basement or in the office. Frankly, if I was your Dad, I would be a little upset too knowing the crap you have in your office already.

After I figured out how to pull the enormous battery packs out of their boxes I dragged everything downstairs and I'm safe...for now.
Still, one thing that confuses me is why the UPC charger/inverter inputs and outputs 230v even though all the hardware can run at 110v no problem. I take it this is partly because the higher the voltage, the lower the amperage draw, right?

Yes, but that doesn't impact the watt-hour capacity of the battery. Most switching power supplies have better efficiency at 230v, and this is likely part of the answer.

Wow, what a haul. You got it for the cost of gas, and the bewilderment of your progenitors, congrats!

Hockey Pux ain't so bad, other than being another archaic unix system.

I don't plan on spending another dollar on old systems. I have been getting rid of most my hobbies (gaming, paintball, old systems and drawing) so that I can spend more money on my little girl and my last 2 hobbies, books and firearms.

I am still gonna keep my Octane2, and spare parts for it... cant shake how cool it makes me feel.

Wow. That's some ancient iron.
Those aren't speed demons, but can run HockeyP/UX.

We used to have one D230 and a couple of K460 machines at work which was scrapped (gave away) around 2001 and then I almost forgot about them. We had a few of those Jamaica diskboxes too and I found out that the 9GB drives had a funky HVD<->LVD SCSI converter. I'd imagine the market steered away from the whole HVD-SCSI market by then and they still had these Jamaicas in production at customers who demanded bigger drives than 2 or 4GB.

I would have ripped the machine out of that obnoxious rack front panel and left the rest... I mean, there's useless, and then there's Useless.

Are you implying a rackmount system is useless? I remove the front off the system and it's a naked front.

Double whammy. >_>

If this system is the one I used to see in one of the computer labs in the tech building, I used to own the matching HP serial terminal for it. It came from the same university and it was a nice terminal...until it fell off a shelf and cracked the neck on the CRT.
I also managed to power up the system this morning and found in the cd tray a Debian netboot disc so I think it is safe to say now that no trace of HP-UX still exists in the system.

well, a hp-ux machine might be fun to have, but that front panel looks like it might triple the storage space requirements. With a bit of creativity it could look like a regular desktop tower. Plus, did you really need the 400 pounds of ups batteries?


All I'm saying is a bit of moderation would have kept your parents happy.

I'm quite sure they won't care in six months when I move out and worry about space constraints on my own.

so, why exactly did you even get this thing? it's not at all note worthy AFAIK. if you're going to give your dad a good reason to get pissed off don't waste it on junk.

The UPS battery pack is probably dead or dying, given age. A scroller saw/sabre saw/Sawzall will do wonders at slashing the space requirements of the HP front panel.

Probably a PA-8000 at 160-180MHz. HP really liked Differential SCSI during that era. Granted, diff SCSI is a much better system and should have been standard, but the fact that it isn't makes things difficult.

Many external boxes from that era have built-in HVD-SE converters, or you can look for a DEC DWZZB - the one I got was well under $10.

This was one of those "I didn't think it out first" things.
I would of liked to just take the system but I was told I take it all or take nothing so I had to spend an hour dismantling the system and putting ti in the car.

edit: anyways, the old man ahs settled down now now that it is out of the living room. I think he just didn't want me cluttering it up again.

Most SGI stuff I acquired was junk, surely worthless for anything I could think to do with it (other than my Octane2), yet it wasn't junk to the people I sold it to.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, ones mans trash.... yadda yadda yadda...

yes, but sgi gear at least has a notable lineage in graphics, cad/cam, etc... they have innovative systems architecture, and design points. that's what most people i imagine people collect it for. the hp 9000? wassat?!