Subject: Trying to help a new VAX-11/750 owner

From: Ethan Dicks <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue Jun 24 14:37:00 2003

A friend of mine at work got the 11/750 recently offered for free in
Pittsburg.  I don't yet know how it's loaded except for the L0022
mem controller and 14MB of RAM.  My friend would _like_ to get a CI750
for it, since he already has an HSJ40 at home.  Barring that, he's
considering the $$$ for a Unibus SCSI controller.

Besides the actual L0009 card, I'm reading that there appears to be
an external enclosure to house part of the CI750.  My 750s were always
a local-disk affairs (UDA50/SI9900/etc).  I have no experience with
CI hardware and don't know what advice to give him.  Can anyone here
describe what you need to pull this all together (he already has
an SC008 and cables).

I'll try to get him on the list... he currently has about a dozen
Alpha Servers and is in the process of working backward in time
in the DEC world.

-ethan

---

From: "Antonio Carlini" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue Jun 24 16:19:00 2003

> Besides the actual L0009 card, I'm reading that there appears 
> to be an external enclosure to house part of the CI750.  My 
> 750s were always a local-disk affairs (UDA50/SI9900/etc).  I 
> have no experience with CI hardware and don't know what 
> advice to give him.  Can anyone here describe what you need 
> to pull this all together (he already has an SC008 and cables).

You can find at least some of the necessary information by
poking around in Manx (http://vt100.net/manx) and searching for
750. I know I scanned some related VAX-11/780 material (like
maybe the CI780 docs) and that should show up.

The basic gist is that you have the appropriate CI interface
in the system (CI750 in your friend's case) and two cables (A & B)
to the SC008 (which is in essence a transformer coupler).

Do the same for other systems you wish to connect.

You almost certainly want some form of HSC (HSC50/60/70/90) connected
to the SC008 and hang disks off the HSC. You may be lucky enough to
find an HSJ, which IIRC will connect to the SC008 and you can hook
SCSI disks to it, which reduces some of the hassles of finding and
maintaining SDI drives. (Of course, if you are trying to get a 
750 running, you may well like these hassles!).

You can hook some Alpha boxes to the SC008 too. The CIPCA is a
PCI CI adapter. There is also (again IIRC) an EISA CI board.

Antonio

-- 

---------------
Antonio Carlini             [email-masked]

---

From: Ethan Dicks <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue Jun 24 16:28:00 2003

--- Antonio Carlini <[email-masked]> wrote:
> 750. 

Thanks.

> to the SC008 (which is in essence a transformer coupler).

Right... my concern was a reference I ran into that there was some
external active equipment.  I've seen CI coax cables on the back
of some VAXen, but it wasn't clear to me that the 750 contained
all the gear necessary to provide the same interface.  
 
> SCSI disks to it...

I think I did mention that he has an HSJ40 (as well as an HSZ40).  That
was the plan

> PCI CI adapter. There is also (again IIRC) an EISA CI board.

He would *love* to find a CIPCA for his Alpha servers.

-ethan

---

From: [email-masked] (Eric Dittman)
Date: Tue Jun 24 16:45:00 2003

> He would *love* to find a CIPCA for his Alpha servers.

I know a lot of people that would like to
find a cheap CIPCA.  I can get an HSG80
controller, in shelf, and a couple of
KGPSA cards for less than a CIPCA.  With
VMS V7.3-1, you can use FCAL so a switch
isn't even needed.
-- 
Eric Dittman
[email-masked]