VBORMC::"gunnar@bitcon.no" "Gunnar Helliesen" wrote:

>On Mon, 30 Sep 1996, Anders Magnusson wrote:
>
> > Hi Gang:
> > 
> > A friend and I have a chance to get possibly five Microvax 4000s. With the
> > recent discussion on uVax models, etc, I wonder where the 4000 would fit in.
> > I'm not sure on which CPU board it was based. 
> > 
> The 4000 isn't supported, and I have no docs on it so it may be hard
> to fix the support. The 4000 series are quite new machines.
>
>Yup, and quite diverse. You have the 4000 models 60 and 90 which are very 
>powerful VAX workstations in "pizzabox" cabinets with integrated Ethernet 
>and SCSI. Then there's the 4000 model 100 (and later 150) which is the 
>"low-end" 4000 server in a "3100-like" tall "pizzabox" cabinet with 
>integrated Ethernet, SCSI and DSSI. The high-end is/was the models 300 to 
>700 (or 800?) in larger "3400-like" cabinets with QBUS backplanes, 
>integrated Ethernet and dual DSSI buses. Again, AFAIK all these machines 
>have in common is the 4000 series (name?) CPU.

IIRC:

The VAXstation 4000 VLC is based on the SOC, the VAXstation 4000-60 is based on 
the Maraiah (same as VAX 6000-500) and the VAXstation 4000-9x are based on the 
NVAX CPU (same as the VAX 6000-600).

The VAX 4000-10x are the same board as the MicroVAX 3100-9x but have (optional) 
Q-bus expansion and DSSI rather than a 2nd (optional) SCSI.

The VAX 4000-200 is a weird beast (SOC based) is a BA200 cab.

The VAX 4000-300,-400,-500,-505A,-600,-700,-705A (I may have missed a few :-) 
are all pretty much the same, just different combinations of cache and clock 
speeds. The 4000-300 has (slower) MS670 memory and does not need the enhanced 
backplane (and it may not be based on the NVAX CPU) but otherwise fits in the 
family quite well.

Assuming that you don't need support for the (SHAC) DSSI adapters and the 
integrated ethernet, then support for the VAX 4000-300 etc. should not require 
too much effort (you could hang RA drives off a KDA50 and use a DELQA for 
ethernet support).

The VAX 4000-10x/MicroVAX 3100-9x would require additional support for the 
integral SCSI controller and ethernet controller to be useful. As would the 
VAXstations.

EK-KA670-TM is the manual which covers the VAX 4000-300.

EK-KA680-TM covers the VAX 4000-500 and EK-498AB-MG covers the changes made for 
the VAX 4000-400/505A/600/700/705A.

These manuals should give you enough information for the CPU support, the 
ethernet port and the DSSI.

Antonio


Antonio Carlini                            Mail: carlini@marvin.enet.dec.com
DECnet-Plus for OpenVMS Engineering
Digital Equipment Corporation              Worton Grange, Reading, England