Nekonomicon - The *ULTIMATE* Collectors VAX

edikat
Who joined Jan. 20, 2011, 4:21 p.m.
and authored 76 notes

Wrote the following at Oct. 10, 2012, 2:21 p.m...

I don't know about you.. but this freaked me out.....

A Military 7000/860.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/VINTAGE-CASED ... 4ab651e57b

Looks from the "hours counter" to be basically unused.

Is this the "ULTIMATE" VAX???

From the patent below (see bottom) looks part of the Joint surveillance target attack radar system (JSTARS).

Pics below (more on eBay listing)

Heck that thing could survive a nuke

I wanna press that "BATTLE SHORT" button ))))

It must have cost a *FORTUNE* - I reckon $0.5M each may not be far off the mark.. anybody care to guess or know?

Condition unknown - sold as seen, no returns. (That made me laugh).

Edited:
PATENT HERE
http://www.google.co.uk/patents/US5117360

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"Scud" East
Sun Blade 2500 'Silver' Workstation - Dual 1.6 USIIIi, 4GB, 146GB SCSI, Solaris 10U9
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mia
Who joined Feb. 19, 2003, 1:54 p.m.
and authored 837 notes

Wrote the following at Oct. 10, 2012, 3:09 p.m...

me want.

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PymbleSoftware
Who joined July 15, 2008, 4:48 p.m.
and authored 1860 notes

Wrote the following at Oct. 10, 2012, 3:20 p.m...

I once saw ruggedized military laptops that could be run over by troop carriers, submerged in river water for significant periods of time and the like.
There was also a legend of a PDP-11 being blown up or shot up or something and still functioning..

R.

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Sold: :Indy:

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dclough
Who joined Jan. 18, 2010, 7:59 p.m.
and authored 185 notes

Wrote the following at Oct. 10, 2012, 3:45 p.m...

Holy mother of VAX. That looks... insane. Where's the power? Is this thing part of a larger chassis? It looks like the precursor to a modern blade system, except not... well, bladed. What are all those plugs on the front? What sort of cards go inside this thing? How old is it?

edikat
Who joined Jan. 20, 2011, 4:21 p.m.
and authored 76 notes

Wrote the following at Oct. 10, 2012, 4:16 p.m...

I looked up the NSN (NATO Stock Number) 5998 01 348 1060

Dates it to around 1992 (Date NSN Established: 1991308 (November 04, 1991)), about the same time the "civilian" 860 was current.

Think it takes 28V DC from the pictures...

The eBay listing says "Make an Offer" and they have 3 of them.... I reckon they'd almost give them away.... but the postage and storage

_________________
"Scud" East
Sun Blade 2500 'Silver' Workstation - Dual 1.6 USIIIi, 4GB, 146GB SCSI, Solaris 10U9
Sun V210, 2x1.33 USIIIi, 8GB, 73GB 15K, Solaris 10U9
Sun V100, USIIi 550, 1.5GB, 40GB, Debian Lenny 5.X

ClassicHasClass
Who joined July 25, 2012, 6:12 p.m.
and authored 300 notes

Wrote the following at Oct. 10, 2012, 7:22 p.m...

@berg on ADN found a page showing some of the boards. Ceramic surface mount, gold contacts, ... !

http://www.electricstuff.co.uk/milboards.html

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robespierre
Who joined Sept. 12, 2011, 1:28 p.m.
and authored 288 notes

Wrote the following at Oct. 10, 2012, 7:40 p.m...

dclough wrote:

Holy mother of VAX. That looks... insane. Where's the power?

There are 8 large spring bolts on the rear side that could be used for power, BUT they are not double insulated and would be too vulnerable to short circuit. It's more likely that power is supplied via the front panel.

Quote:

Is this thing part of a larger chassis?

It was designed to slot into a frame, probably in the electronics bay of some weapons system.

Quote:

What are all those plugs on the front?

Aside from a couple of BNC connectors, they are all MIL-DTL-38999 connectors. Apart from "FLIJ1" which means "Forward-looking infrared" they are only marked with numbers.

Quote:

What sort of cards go inside this thing?

I would guess they would be XMI cards, perhaps in a smaller form factor.

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:PI:

jan-jaap
Who joined June 17, 2004, 10:35 a.m.
and authored 3603 notes

Wrote the following at Oct. 11, 2012, 2:10 a.m...

edikat wrote:

Is this the "ULTIMATE" VAX???

The ultimate VAX chassis maybe, but all the boards are gone ....

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Currently in commercial service:

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smj
Who joined Nov. 12, 2007, 7:54 p.m.
and authored 935 notes

Wrote the following at Oct. 11, 2012, 2:45 a.m...

Quote:

TELFORD
SHROPSHIRE
TF2 8JJ

Oh, so I guess this is what Shropshire lads were messing about with in the 90s rather than the poetry racket...

_________________
Then? :IRIS3130:

... Now?

+MLA

... Other: DEC :BA213:

Sun , DG AViiON , NeXT :Cube:

Pontus
Who joined May 8, 2008, 11:12 a.m.
and authored 493 notes

Wrote the following at Oct. 11, 2012, 12:15 p.m...

jan-jaap wrote:

edikat wrote:

Is this the "ULTIMATE" VAX???

The ultimate VAX chassis maybe, but all the boards are gone ....

Yup, found this some time ago and asked for more pictures, the newer pictures showed that it was an empty machine. It is certainly not impossible to find the CPU boards. The PSU will be trickier, you will probably have to wire something up. But yes! it is darn cool.

Also, CHM has one, can't find the link now

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<- MicroVAX 3500 :BA213:

<- DECsystem 5500 :BA215:

<- MicroVAX 3300
Pictures of my collection: www.pdp8.se

pentium
Who joined Aug. 28, 2006, 5:29 p.m.
and authored 4228 notes

Wrote the following at Oct. 14, 2012, 10:16 p.m...

ClassicHasClass wrote:

@berg on ADN found a page showing some of the boards. Ceramic surface mount, gold contacts, ... !

http://www.electricstuff.co.uk/milboards.html

I'm sure those got dunked in acid as fast as the scrapper could possibly go.

Edited: Oh, there's a video of them: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55z_0BYb5is

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guardian452
Who joined Aug. 21, 2007, 9:12 p.m.
and authored 2551 notes

Wrote the following at Oct. 15, 2012, 2:50 a.m...

Just imagine the black helicopters that would descend on my house if I tried to have this thing shipped to the United States. The HSA would have me deported before the transaction was complete :roll:

Quote:

I wanna press that "BATTLE SHORT" button ))))

It must have cost a *FORTUNE* - I reckon $0.5M each may not be far off the mark.. anybody care to guess or know?

AFAIK battle short will bypass the circuit breaker?

You may want to triple your cost estimate, after seeing those fancy-pants PCBs.

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PymbleSoftware
Who joined July 15, 2008, 4:48 p.m.
and authored 1860 notes

Wrote the following at Oct. 15, 2012, 11:24 a.m...

guardian452 wrote:

Just imagine the black helicopters that would descend on my house if I tried to have this thing shipped to the United States. The HSA would have me deported before the transaction was complete :roll:

But it is the land of the FREE and the home of the BRAVE ..

R.

_________________
死の神はりんごだけ食べる

アレゲはアレゲ以上のなにものでもなさげ -- アレゲ研究家

:Tezro:

J5600, 2 x Mac, 3 x SUN, Alpha DS20E, Alpha 800 5/550, 3 x RS/6000, Amiga 4000 VideoToaster, Amiga4000 -030, 733MHz Sam440 AmigaOS 4.1 update 1. Tandem Himalaya S-Series Nonstop S72000 ServerNet.

Sold: :Indy:

Cortex ---> http://www.facebook.com/pages/Cortex-th ... 11?sk=info
Minnie ---> http://www.facebook.com/pages/Minnie-th ... 02?sk=info
Book ----> http://pymblesoftware.com/book/
Github ---> https://github.com/pymblesoftware
Visit http://www.pymblesoftware.com
Search for "Pymble", "InstaElf", "CryWhy" or "Cricket Score Sheet" in the iPad App store or search for "Pymble" or "CryWhy" in the iPhone App store.

skywriter
Who joined March 14, 2003, 5:22 a.m.
and authored 3077 notes

Wrote the following at Oct. 15, 2012, 2:25 p.m...

Raytheon modified DEC stuff was pretty tame; mil spec power supplies with lots of line conditioners or batteries for portable, and a tempest case to stuff it in. No biggie. I would rather have the commercial equipment you can find parts for.

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SAQ
Who joined July 19, 2006, 7:37 a.m.
and authored 5590 notes

Wrote the following at Oct. 15, 2012, 7:16 p.m...

skywriter wrote:

Raytheon modified DEC stuff was pretty tame; mil spec power supplies with lots of line conditioners or batteries for portable, and a tempest case to stuff it in. No biggie. I would rather have the commercial equipment you can find parts for.

And if it was only XMI you'll be limited in what perepherals you can use.

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skywriter
Who joined March 14, 2003, 5:22 a.m.
and authored 3077 notes

Wrote the following at Oct. 16, 2012, 5:42 a.m...

Huh? XMI wasn't a peripheral bus until the vax9000. Then you get usa, dssi, ni, ci, and bi for the rest of the junk. Not that you want to try to tempest package all that crap.

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SAQ
Who joined July 19, 2006, 7:37 a.m.
and authored 5538 notes

Wrote the following at Oct. 16, 2012, 4:34 p.m...

skywriter wrote:

Huh? XMI wasn't a peripheral bus until the vax9000. Then you get usa, dssi, ni, ci, and bi for the rest of the junk. Not that you want to try to tempest package all that crap.

VAX 6000 was XMI for the mainbus, right? Did Raytheon cram a XMI->BI adapter in that box, have the I/O in a separate chassis, or do somthing else, then?

_________________
Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!

Systems available for remote access on request.

:Indigo:

(single-CM)

Pontus
Who joined May 8, 2008, 11:12 a.m.
and authored 489 notes

Wrote the following at Oct. 17, 2012, 12:32 a.m...

This is apparently the "space vax" mentioned here:
http://www.tpo.net/humor/Ultra/comphumo ... space.html

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:Onyx2R:

<- MicroVAX 3500 :BA213:

<- DECsystem 5500 :BA215:

<- MicroVAX 3300
Pictures of my collection: www.pdp8.se

robespierre
Who joined Sept. 12, 2011, 1:28 p.m.
and authored 254 notes

Wrote the following at Oct. 17, 2012, 1:31 a.m...

VAX 6210 != VAX 7000/860. The latter is over 100 times the VUPS rating.
I guess that's why the topic says "ultimate".

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:PI:

skywriter
Who joined March 14, 2003, 5:22 a.m.
and authored 3077 notes

Wrote the following at Oct. 17, 2012, 3:32 a.m...

SAQ wrote:

skywriter wrote:

Huh? XMI wasn't a peripheral bus until the vax9000. Then you get usa, dssi, ni, ci, and bi for the rest of the junk. Not that you want to try to tempest package all that crap.

VAX 6000 was XMI for the mainbus, right? Did Raytheon cram a XMI->BI adapter in that box, have the I/O in a separate chassis, or do somthing else, then?

Oh I see. I don't know, it was after my time. I did reverse engineer XMI for a plug compatible memory card though. :)

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The ULTIMATE Collectors VAX