Subject: Re: NuVAX revisited
To: NetBSD Bob <nbsdbob@weedcon1.cropsci.ncsu.edu>
From: Chuck McManis <cmcmanis@mcmanis.com>
List: port-vax
Date: 06/26/2001 12:44:36
At 03:27 PM 6/26/01 -0400, NetBSD Bob wrote:
>How about we design it, with 512mb ram and a scsi controller or two
>on a single 3.5 inch HD form factor card, mounting a big blower on top.

One of the things that would be really "fun" to do would be to take a 3.5" 
SCSI drive and "dress it" as an RA82 by scaling down the RA82 dimensions 
until the 3.5" drive mechanism just fits inside. Now scale up to some 
reasonable whole number fraction and using that build some scale 11/780 
cabinets. There should be plenty of room inside the cabinet to fit an FPGA, 
a 4MB X 32 simm, and a couple of connectors. You will probably need to use 
light pipes to simulate the front panel lights but you could then have a 
"table top" VAX that looks like a VAX. :-)

>(Speaking of MV2000 crates... what is a TriMarchi expansion system
>  bolted on the bottom of a MV2000?)

The MV2000 allowed for a "system tray" to be bolted to the bottom. This 
brought out SCSI and some other connectors. TriMarchi was one of several 
third parties (Sigma Information Systems was another) that built expansions 
that took advantage of this feature.

--Chuck