Henry R. Bent wrote:


> As the proud owner of a /200, I can tell you that it's going to be a chore.  I
> asked this question a while back, and it turns out that you have to replace the
> entire backplane to upgrade the CPU.  The difference between the /200 and the
> /300-on AFAIK is that the /200 is put directly on the Qbus while the other 4000s
> are put into special slots.  This makes sense if you think about it, because you
> can upgrade boxes like the 3800/3900 just by putting a /200 CPU board in them.


Yuck! So I will have to replace the backplane. Ah sheesh. And I thought
this would be a nice and easy way to a fast VAX.


>>NetBSD's highest line of VAX is the -300 or -500, right?
>>
> 
> I dunno about you, but I want a /705A :-)


Sure, but I didn't think it was NetBSDable.


>>This is
>>going to be my machine to build NetBSD kernels (I have basically
>>given up on doing difficult development jobs on the VAX6000s.
>>
> 
> Did I miss something?  You're running NetBSD on a 6000?  I could really kick
> myself if you are - I had the very easy chance to get a free 6620, but passed
> since there was no NetBSD support and no Ultrix support (no flames about my
> dislike for VMS).  Not to mention that the electric bills would just about kill
> me...


O.K. we are brothers in our dislike for VMS. I have never been flamed
here not even by Brian or Sridhar who love VMS. All nice people. BUT
I'm going to flame you right here and now for letting a 6620 go away
without telling anybody about it! Flame, flame, flame, blistering heat,
there you go :0). Are you absolutely sure Ultrix was never supported
on the 6600? I know 4.5 was supposed to run on the 6500. Now, as far
as my 6400 goes, no, I'm not running NetBSD right now, but I was going
to add sup-port for the XMI and BI stuff. That was the idea about
compiling GCC-2.98 on Ultrix, so I could build a NetBSD kernel and
try to graft on some code. But I am still too caught up in hardware
struggles, too many VAXquisitions, 11/780, uVAX-II, now the 4000-200
tunring out to be more of a dead-end than I thought. The 4000-200 is
a CVAX? Riegel? Oh darn, that would mean that my 6460 would still be
the faster one.

Robert, I'm now thinking very hard about not paying for the shipping
of that thing and instead let you pick it up at your convenience and
use it to your hearts content on "loan" until we meet some day in the
future. It is a nice body, and I really could use a night stand, but
I have to be reasonable about shipping charges.

regards
-Gunther



-- 
Gunther Schadow, M.D., Ph.D.                    gschadow@regenstrief.org
Medical Information Scientist      Regenstrief Institute for Health Care
Adjunct Assistant Professor        Indiana University School of Medicine
tel:1(317)630-7960                         http://aurora.regenstrief.org