> Gunther Schadow wrote:
> 
> 
	>I am looking for VAX Hardware Reference for the VAX 11/780, 11/785,
	>86x0, the uVAX-II, and then the VAX 6000s. I suspect that's not all
	>in one book. But, what revisions of the Hardware Reference are
there
	>anyway? I think the first edition is the 1978/1979, at least my
	>VAX Architecture Handbook bears this date. I understand that the
	>"Handbooks" were a 3-volume series, with volume 1 Architecture,
	>vol 2 Harware and vol 3 Software (VMS). I assume that they threw
	>out old models in more recent editions, right? Could we reconstruct
	>which topics are described in which edition of the Hardware
Handbook?

	There are lots of handbooks. I have:
	  - VAX Architecture 1981
	  - VAX 11/780 Hardware Handbook 1979/80
	  - VAX 11/780 Architecture Handbook 1977-78
	  - VAX Hardware Handbook 1982-83
	  (the above all cover the VAX 11/7xx series only)
	  - VAX Hardware Handbook 1986 Volume 1 
	  - VAX Hardware Handbook 1986 Volume 2
	  - MicroVAX Systems Handbook
	  - VAX Systems Handbook - UNIBUS Systems
	  - VAX Systems Handbook - VAXBI Systems

	There are probably further editions. I'd say the
	technical content went down as time went
	on but they do all at least provide a
	user-level overview.

	>One can't buy those any more, how does that influence the right to
	>compile and share copies? I wonder if one could archive the
	>Hardware handbooks by subject and that way compile a single volume
	>with complete coverage of all VAXen.

	DFWCUG ( http://montagar.com/~patj/dec/hcps.htm )
	are scanning stuff. I've not seen any handbooks
	yet but you could try contacting them and seeing
	how far they have got to date. They do have the covers
	of many handbooks available. I know that one of
	their problems was finding a way of removing
	the book spine cleanly (to feed the book through
	a sheet feed scanner). If you try http://www.decdocs.org
	you see a bunch of links to other sites, some of which
	have a few handbooks available in various forms 
	(although I don't think the handbooks you want are 
	online anywhere I have seen).

	>Besides, there is a mystical "Perepherial Handbook" to which I have
	>seen reference once, but never any copy in bookstores, catalogues
or
	>on eBay. Did it ever exist? Was it volume 4 of the series? What
	>items were covered over the years in there?

	There is a Peripherals handbook (for the cover see:
	http://montagar.com/~patj/dec/pdp11/index.htm )
	There were several editions, one every couple of years.

	These handbooks (which were not really a series as
	such) were marketing collateral. They were put together
	by marketing either to give away on customer
	visits, or to sell on. They should not
	be relied on too heavily for technical
	information (except, I suppose, in the absence
	of a real technical manual).

	Antonio