[Info-vax] Part number encoding

[H Vlems]

On Dec 26, 4:33 pm, Michael Kraemer <M.Krae... at gsi.de> wrote:
> H Vlems schrieb:
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> > On Dec 25, 11:03 am, Michael Kraemer <M.Krae... at gsi.de> wrote:
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> >>H Vlems schrieb:
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> >>>I'm guessing here but may be if the first two characters are digits
> >>>the product code refers to hardware, otherwise it's either software of
> >>>documentation.
> >>>The last two characters are either a patch level or a (hardware)
> >>>variant of the product. Software was issued on various media, called H-
> >>>kits.
> >>>The reason was that all media kits had product codes that ended in -
> >>>Hn.  When n was 9 you got 9 track PE magtape.
> >>>Hans
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> >>Sure?
> >>All CDs I know of start with "AG" and end with "BE", "RE", "XE" or "BS",
> >>be it for VMS, DUNIX or Ultrix.
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> > Of course I'm not sure. The term H-kit was invented well before a cd
> > was even thought of!
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> well, they could have kept the old nomenclature.
> -HC for a CD kit for example.
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> > And by the time they were, it was to distribute music.....
>
> When did the CD appear, 1981/83?
> And when was the first time that software was shipped on CD?- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

Michael,
the launch for players and media was in april 1983, in the
Netherlands. IIRC it may have been introduced earlier in the USA and
possibly Japan.
No idea when Digital started shipping software on cd. The oldest media
I've got are from 1994 (VMS V6.1 for VAX and AXP).
The VAX cd is AG-PXKUC-RE, the firware cd ends in -BE, the Alpha cd
ends in -RE
Hans