From: alan@nabeth.enet.dec.com (Alan Rollow - Alan's Home for Wayward Tumbleweeds.)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.dec
Subject: Re: Vaxstation 2 info request
Date: 6 Oct 92 19:31:38 GMT
Article-I.D.: nntpd2.1992Oct6.193138.25626
Reply-To: alan@nabeth.enet.dec.com (Alan Rollow - Alan's Home for Wayward Tumbleweeds.)
Distribution: na
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation


In article <91828@netnews.upenn.edu>, hurtubis@a.chem.upenn.edu (Vincent Hurtubise) writes:
>
>   I might be able to buy a used Vaxstation 2 and would like to know more
>about this machine.  Does it run Ultrix, VMS, either ?
>(I know many Vaxstations 3100 can run either.)

ULTRIX: Yes.
VMS: Yes.
Either: Yes.

>What kind of cpu/fpu does it have?

I forget the part number, but it is the original MicroVAX chip.  The
floating point supports F, D and G VAX floating point formats.  The
operating system should have support to emulate H.

>What kind of performance can be expected ?

By definition 1 MVUP.  Around one SPECmark.

>The machine has a 85 Meg HD and a tape "subsystem".
>Are these SCSI devices, or some other kind ?

The disk sounds about the right size to be an RD53, most likely
connected to either an RQDX3 or RQDX2.  The operating system will
treat it as an MSCP disk.  I'm not sure what it is inside.
 
>What kinds of ports does it have ? (serial, parallel, ethernet, SCSI ... )

The base system has one serial line that can be used as an alternate
console or printer port.  It's uses a nine (9) pin connector.  The
port can go as fast as 9600 baud or maybe even 19,200, but it's based
on the DEC typical console serial line.  This every character read
and written will generate an interrupt and it has no modem control.

Later versions of the VAXstation II include an Ethernet adapter
(the DEQNA).  Depending on exactly what system it is, it may have
one.

>I don't know whether a keyboard and monitors are included.  If not, what kinds
>are needed ?  Can the machine be used via a terminal connected to a serial
>port?

If I were buying a VAXstation, I would require the person selling it
to me to include a keyboard, monitor, mouse and all the necessary
cables.  Otherwise you have a MicroVAX with a nearly worthless
graphics adapter.

More on options...

The system come in two boxes, both desk-side (or under).  The smaller
box is the BA23 and is tall, narrow and deep.  It has room for two storage
options up front, usually disk and tape.  For most systems the front
panel controls only have switches for one disk.  The systems uses the
Q-bus for the system bus and I think I has a nine-slot backplane.  The
CPU takes one slot and probably includes 1 MB of memory.  You can two
more memory boards in the next two slots.  They're connected to the CPU
by a private memory bus.  After that you can use normal Q-bus options.

There is a version of the BA23 that had limited expansion capability
and was cheaper.  I think four of the nine Q-bus slots were filled
with epoxy.

The other box is the BA123.  It was shorter, wider and less deep.  It
also had wheels and was sturdy enough to make a reasonable place to
sit.  It has cavities for five 5.25" form factor things.  I think
the supported configuration is a tape drive, two hard disks and
a dual RX50 floppy disk drive.  I've known people to put as many
as four hard disks and a drive in it with overloading the power
supply.  Each disk should include it's own control panel.  This
system uses a 12 slot back plane with the same CPU and memory
configuration.  The system can use at most 16 MB of memory.

For a VAXstation there were two graphics adapter.  A simple
monochrome frame buffer that used an optical mouse.  This one
only takes one Q-bus slot.  The other is the GPX subsystem,
which consists of a graphics board and up to two memory boards
for it.  Each memory board provided four planes of graphics
memory.  Typical configurations were either a four place
monochrome system and 8 plane color.  There were also two
distribution panels for the GPX, one for monochrome and the
other for color.

Beyond that many Q-bus options were supported.  Some of the
more common ones:

TQK50 - Controller for a TK50 tape drive (TMSCP).
RQDX3 - Controller for (4) RD series disk drives (MSCP).
DEQNA - Ethernet adapter.
DHQ11 - 8 port tty interface.

>Does a used machine carry a "right-to-use" type of license ala Sun ?
>If the boot tapes are available, does that imply a license ?
>Is any free software available for this machine, e.g., X ?

For the licensing stuff you'll want to find out that from the
person selling it to you.  I don't know how either the VMS
nor ULTRIX licenses work on resale.  The presense of an installation
kit, doesn't mean it has a license.

>
>     Thanks in advance,
>-------------------------------------
>   Vincent Hurtubise
>      hurtubis@a.chem.upenn.edu
>      hurtubis@sun0.chem.upenn.edu
>
--
Alan Rollow				alan@nabeth.cxo.dec.com
Newsgroups: comp.sys.dec