Vissza a főoldalhoz 1987

    VAXstation/MicroVAX 2000


     
    The MicroVAX was based on the MicroVAX II and its support chips, and was placed into a remarkably small enclosure. It didn't have an expansion bus, but had a tape port, which was later found to be a normal SCSI-port (although DEC sold the machines with MFM disks). 

    The VAXstation 2000 had a 2/8-plane graphics option (monchrome graphics was integrated onto the "motherboard"). Storage expansion was possible using expansions boxes, since the enxlosure was very tight. It was one of the most succesfull graphical workstations ever, and they are very durable too: I've seen production MicroVAX 2000's with uptimes like 410 days (using Ultrix)!

    Extreme close-up
    Loaded...
    In the papers



    MicroVAX 3500/3600


     
    If 1986 was the year of the VAXBI, then 1987 was the year of the new CVAX chip, which was about 3 times faster than the MicroVAX II, and featured something new called "second-level cache" (we're all familiar with this term now, I guess). The first systems with the new chip were the MicroVAX 3500 and MicroVAX 3600, based on the KA650 CPU module (qbus).  There is some confusion out there with the different packaking, here's my version to what's what:
    • MicroVAX 3500: KA650 CPU in the new BA213 enclosure
    • MicroVAX 3600: KA650 with the backplane inserted into a H9644 rack, and with an RA82 on top (pictured to the left)
    • MicroVAX III: MicroVAX II's upgraded with the KA650 CPU module and memory, usually in BA23 or BA123 boxes
    • VAXstation 3200: MicroVAX III with graphics option
    The KA650 was able to deal with 64 MB's of memory, but there were some restricted versions, that complained when memory was more then 32 MB (and some sources mention 32MB as the maximal memory ammount).

    3500 in a BA213
    Another 3500
    MicroVAX III
    3600
    A misteriously looking 3600


    VAX 8978/8974


     
    Pre-configured clusters with processors, HSC's, storage arrays. A 8978 is 8 8810 (4 GB RAM), 2 HSC's, 2 SA482's, 4 TA79's and a MicroVAX II as console. A 8974 is something similar with only 4 8810 processors and fewer I/O devices.

    Misc

    PDP-11/53: 1987 was a busy year in Digital's life: apart from the above VAXen, they also introduced the new low-end PDP-11/53.