HP/DEC/Compaq

Made a deal on one which doesn't show a screen, but does appear to power up and "do stuff." I strongly suspect the machine is actually in working order, and it does have an external video out.

These are basically HP 9000/712 systems in a portable MIL-SPEC case. Quite unusual. Pics when it arrives.

http://www.openpa.net/systems/saic_galaxy_1100.html

there were several HP-PA SBCs on VME (or even something newer like TCA??) boards. ISTR they used wacky micro-D-sub connectors to fit on the narrow panel.

So it came today, a bit banged up (the seller did mention this -- I don't think this was shipping damage). Unfortunately, it starts rapidly blinking the front LED, which the 9000/712 service manual implies is a bad CPU or CPU board. (There is no battery on the board. That wouldn't cause this, I should think?)

However, the mainboard looks like a regular 9000/712 (/60 or /80, not /100), so it should be possible to just transplant one in. Anyone getting rid of one? The external video out puts out a perfectly good signal, so I suspect that once the CPU board is replaced, it will "just work."

Here's a picture.
http://www.floodgap.com/iv/2580

ClassicHasClass wrote: Here's a picture.
http://www.floodgap.com/iv/2580

Hey a closeup of that nameplate would be interesting! I've worked with SAIC on many projects over the years. The easiest way to describe them is to say they're basically the human equivalent of the Borg. Any technology you have that they don't, even if it's completely unrelated to what you're working on with them, they will assimilate it...

I'll post one tonight. I used to have a login to plash.saic.com back in the day. We ran a MUD off it.

Here's the badge, just for vishy.

So, a postscript. I got a 712/60 and gutted it. Turns out that the Galaxy board is reworked slightly to add an auxiliary connector to what looks like some of the PS/2 pins on the back, presumably for the internal keyboard and trackball, so I clipped the connector off the 712/60, soldered on leads to the same points and soldered them to the connector, then carefully wormed it into the guts of the laptop. It does now give a display on an external monitor, but it won't see any keyboard, even an external one. I'm not sure if there's a difference between the boards that meant I should have connected the leads elsewhere, and there is some difference in labeling on the two boards even though the solder points seem to be the same in that area, but the internal display doesn't work either, so I'm concluding the beating this thing took probably broke something else.

Anyway, in case anyone else runs across one of these and tries to fix it.

That sucks, those things were designed specifically for the purpose of being used on the battlefield and taking untoward beatings. Yet another SAIC product that failed to hit the mark.

Yeah, this looked like someone took the wrong end of a hammer to the hinge.