Subject: Re: Net booting a MicroVAX 3100 (fwd)
To: NetBSD/VAX Mailing List <port-vax@NetBSD.ORG>
From: Brian D Chase <brianc@carpediem.com>
List: port-vax
Date: 05/21/1997 01:36:56
On Wed, 21 May 1997, Anders Magnusson wrote:

> > [4] What *are* the differences between the MicroVAX and VAXstation 3100's
> >     and 2000's?  From skimming the mailing list, I gather that the like

> There are more than five rather different VS3100 implementations that 

Okay okay, I guess I wasn't thinking of getting an answer in the context
of how their differences relate to implementation of an operating system. 
Silly me, I need to remember it is afterall a mailing list devoted
primarily to porting efforts. 

Still, allow me to digress.  First I will both re-phrase that question and
present it in a different context.  Pretend it's 1987 and you're a DEC
salesperson (God forbid) and I am a customer considering purchasing either
a VAXstation 3100/30 or a MicroVAX 3100/10.  Why - apart from cost and the
.4 VUPS speed difference between the two systems - why would I consider
purchasing one system over the other?  For that matter, given a simillar
scenerio in 1985 with a VAXstation 2000 vs MicroVAX 2000, why would I
consider purchasing one over the other?

> need various tweaking to device drivers etc... Right now NetBSD may run
> on some of them, if the moon is in the right phase etc...

In my case, I'm running the kernel put together by Bertram on what is
either a VS3100/30 or 40 -- I'm not really certain how to tell the
difference when there isn't something actually printed on the front of the
case. I did have a 38, as indicated by the VAXstation 3100 M38 name plate,
but it didn't live long enough for me to get mopbooted.  Anyway, the
kernel has been stable through various phases of the moon on my [30|40] so
perhaps the good fortune is the result of alien friends? 

I will be anxiously awaiting the omni-VS3100 support kernel.

-brian.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Brian D. Chase         Systems Coordinator        brian.chase@carpediem.com
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