rtVAX 300, was Re: lunchbox VAXen, was Re: [HECnet] Introducing myself... and my little network

On 06/07/2012 08:29 PM, Gregg Levine wrote: I don't know why, but here goes, a while ago there were advertisements for a thing DEC called the "rtVAX", it was the processor element in a case about the size of a paperback and mounted on a VME board. Like this one? http://www.neurotica.com/misc/rtVAX-300-1.jpg http://www.neurotica.com/misc/rtVAX-300-2.jpg I picked that up at a hamfest just this past weekend! =) The rtVAX-300 is significantly smaller than a paperback, by the way. If memory serves, it contains a CVAX chipset, an Ethernet controller (SGEC I think), and some ROM. They advertised it as an embedded processor for specialty applications. The user would, what else? build their code on a host such as what we are talking about and including the implied difficulties of debugging it of course, and then deploy it onto the unit's storage media. And then off it went wearing the code written and the rest of it on something else. Why I want one (or two or three or four) is any number of reasons, but it would be an interesting job getting one of the things working on our network. I think it wouldn't be too tough to get most any OS running on it that supports a CVAX-based machine. I'm looking forward to messing with it. It's on a 6U VME module made by Aeon, and with it I also got a 6U VME mass storage module (a SCSI hard drive, and a floppy drive with a SCSI bridge board) and a very nice card cage with attached power supply. There's also a Motorola MVME-series 68040 CPU board in the card cage. -Dave -- Dave McGuire, AK4HZ New Kensington, PA