hello all

> It's the same. DEC had a stroke of IBMification around that time, and
> wanted to start saying "VAX xyzzy MODEL foobar".


 yeah.. they had too much of a stroke of IBMification all around, and it 
ended up hurting them very seriously! 

> > Does anyone know the power requirements of such a beast?  Also with 
> > a "RA72 x 4 storage" and "RA90" in another cabinet.
> 
> Hmmm, not off my head, but they are not *too* bad.


 the RA72s are trivial in power use. the machine itself, however, can suck
some serious power depending on how its configured. the main xformer on 
my 6320 is rated for 4.7kw, and thats the same machine (sans the CPUs) that
yours is. however, it really is dependent on hiw much stuff you have in 
there. how much mmeory, is it loadd up with lots of BI boards, etc etc. 
power use on a minimally configured 6000 will probabaly be around 
400-600W, but on a more normally configured one, i'd guess power use to be
more like 800W or so, not counting disks and such. all told, youre certainly
in for a kilowatt.. :) but it's worth it! a VAX 6000 is a beautiful 
machine! i only wish i had all of mine in one piece so i could run it! 
(anybody know of a 6000 machine being junked within an hour or so of 
pittsburgh? *grin*) 

> 
> > Supposedly this needs needs 3-phase power?  Anyway to run on 110v or 220v?
> 
> Unless my memory fails me, it doesn't really need 3 phase, but the power
> controller is normally wired for it, to distribute the load on all phases.


 exactly. these machines actually have a DC power bus, and the giant 
'power supply' that takes 3phase is merely a big bridge rectifier. A 
fellow in australia wrote a very nice description of how to modify these 
to take singlephase power instead. send me email and ill dig it up, if 
you cant find it.. 

you're a lucky dude! the 6000's are in many ways the pinnacle of VAX 
design! theyre certainly the ones which embody most completely the design 
principles of the VAX architecture.... everything is a nexus, memory is 
the medium of all communication, the whole universe is paged virtual 
memory, ethernet boards that manipulate page tables and so on.. very very 
beautiful. 


happy hacking!
isildur