[HECnet] Re: KL10/RP06/TU77 Power requirements

Thanks, I had a look; this is 'just' for the processor complex, so I have yet to scare up the peripherals. The first three cabinets are the processor, I/O control, memory and communications (PDP-11/40 front end) complex.  These alone account for 21.6 kilowatts.  Ouch...  Of course, that's without the peripherals. CU20B had a 3 pack RP06 PS: (boot) structure (email, staff and client storage) and other executables), an RP07 CU: structure (staff usage), an RP06 SNARK: structure (Monitor, Exec and Galaxy sources) and a free RP06 for client disk mounts.  It had a pair of TU78 (6250 BPI) tape drives plus two more PDP-11 front ends for WAN DECnet and IBM communications. Finally, it had a stack of RA81's for the common file system and associated CI and STAR connector.  I can't remember what we kept on those; they were not initially all that reliable (neither was the RP07), come to think of it.  I'm probably forgetting something.  I would say all of that shit easily doubled things, so I guess you're talking 50 kilowatts. CompuServe came up with another power supply which I would assume was a switcher; it halved the power requirements.  They offered to license it to DEC for free, but apparently DEC didn't take it because it was too late into the KL product life cycle.  I heard of other sites using it, but I think you had to have your own internal Field Service personnel.  CMU did that, but I'm not sure if it was for the power supplies. I once heard of some guy who managed to get a KA10 (just the processor complex) into his apartment.  This was a building that was so old that it didn't have separate meters for each apartment (!!).  While he could only run it during the winter (with the windows wide open), he didn't get nailed for the power. Having once inhabited in an older (WWII) Queens (LIC) apartment, I'm not sure how he would have done that without melting the wiring, so maybe this is apocryphal.