I am not sure I know all the answers, but I will have a go...

In actual fact the UNIBUS cabinet is mostly empty! I contains a BA11-K
witch is a UNIBUS card cage. The BA11-K has its own internal power supply.
The BA11-K is connected to the 11/785 UNIBUS Adapter by a Paddle card
and 3 ribbon cables (can't remember how many pins, 40+ each).
So I would not think that the whole UNIBUS cabinet is needed, just the
BA11-K.
The UNIBUS cabinet just seems to tidy up a lot of cabling, it can  also
contain a
second BA11-K.

As far as the UNSBUS in my 11/785, I have a DEUNA Ethernet, SCSI Tape
Controller and serial cards (can't remember part numbers of hand).

MASSBUS I am not to sure of, but it is a CARD BUS, similar backplane
to the SBI.
Yes, used mainly for storage. I have a MASSBUS disk controller. I would
love a RMxx drive or 2!

Regards,
Tim.


> Thanks Tim for the scans of the drawings. Tim sent me a drawing of
> the front and back view of the VAX 11/785. This confirms:
>
> - the UNIBUS is yet another cabinet. Does everyone on this list
>   who has an 11/78x have that UNIBUS cabinet just to plug in one
>   ethernet card? That seems like a waste? Or do you connect to
>   something else as a UNIBUS cabinet, like a PDP-11? Rackmount
>   UNIBUS card cage? What type of power supply does the UNIBUS
>   need?
>
> - is there any other way to hook ethernet to a VAX 11/78x? Sounds
>   like I would want to use the IP over CI trick to my 6000 and
>   route to Ethernet from there instead of bothering with the
>   UNIBUS. OTOH, can a single UNIBUS be used by two computers?
>   If so, I should get a VAXBI to UNIBUS adapter too, and share
>   the UNIBUS between 6000 and 11/785, I don't think it'll work
>   that way.
>
> - I gather that the IO panel is used for the UNIBUS cable (that
>   must be a big thing) and for the MASSBUS devices. I was wondering
>   if the MASSBUS had a backplane, but I gather it is a cable-bus,
>   much like DSSI or SCSI, is that right?
>
> - What do you use for disks? It seems like I should finally get
>   a star coupler and HSC to run both my 6000s and the (future)
>   11/785 from. Sounds like MASSBUS storage is rather obsolete (even
>   in hobbyist terms). I suppose I would shy away from these 200+ kg
>   RMxx devices, or are there ones that are more graceful? Are those
>   MFM devices anyway that are known to fail?
>
> - So the massbus is essentially a useless and obsolete appendix,
>   or is there any other use for it?
>
> Thanks,
> -Gunther
>
>
> --
> Gunther Schadow, M.D., Ph.D.                    gschadow@regenstrief.org
> Medical Information Scientist      Regenstrief Institute for Health Care
> Adjunct Assistant Professor        Indiana University School of Medicine
> tel:1(317)630-7960                         http://aurora.regenstrief.org