[Info-vax] VMS 5.0

[John Wallace]

On Nov 14, 9:08 pm, pech... at pechter.dyndns.org (Bill Pechter) wrote:
> In article <uaWdnepJbIKPlyHTnZ2dnUVZ_uedn... at giganews.com>,
> Richard B. Gilbert <rgilber... at comcast.net> wrote:
>
>
>
> >On 11/10/2011 12:08 PM, Bill Pechter wrote:
> >> In article<X7udndDIALKHPSTTnZ2dnUVZ_hSdn... at giganews.com>,
> >> Richard B. Gilbert<rgilber... at comcast.net>  wrote:
> >>> On 11/8/2011 2:42 PM, Johnny Billquist wrote:
> >>>> On 2011-11-08 15.50, Bob Koehler wrote:
> >>>>> In
> >>>>> article<e26cf339-adbf-48b1-aaf0-8bf7e6bce... at i10g2000vbk.googlegroups.com>,
> >>>>> abrsvc<dansabrservi... at yahoo.com>  writes:
>
> >>>>>> The more likely contents are the standanlone backup kit. IIRC, the
> >>>>>> actual VMS software was distributed on magtape,TK50 and removeable
> >>>>>> disk only.
>
> >>>>> Some VMS update kits were distributed on TU58.
>
> >>>>> One of the 3.x update kits was on several TU58, at the time the only
> >>>>> option for 11/750 owners. (I think it was on 8" floppies for
> >>>>> 11/780). At the time only full installs shipped on 9-track.
>
> >>>>> It took so long to ingest from TU58 and DEC got so many complaints
> >>>>> that DEC decided, and loudly declared at the next DECUS symposium,
> >>>>> that in the future _all_ kits would be available on 9-track.
>
> >>>>> Then CD became the standard media for Alpha, and available for VAX,
> >>>>> so we immediately ordered a Qbus CD reader for our MV II.
>
> >>>> I can't even imagine how many TU58 it would take for a full VMS
> >>>> distribution. About 100 tapes maybe? Considering that the standalone
> >>>> backup alone is 5 RX01 floppies, and the capacity of the TU58 is
> >>>> similar, the number of disks/tapes even for some update kit quickly
> >>>> becomes ridiculous as far as the number of media is concerned.
>
> >>>> Johnny
>
> >>> ISTR that you could die of old age trying to install from TU58!
>
> >>> Just doing a BACKUP /VERIFY to nine track 1600 BPI tape took about
> >>> fourteen hours!  At this late date, I understand why DEC gave us
> >>> (Princeton University) an 11/750 with RA-81 disk at an extreme discount!
> >>>   Nobody in his right mind would have paid for it if he had to install
> >>> it and/or do full disk backups!
>
> >> What tape drive was this -- a TapeStretcher-11 or TE16.
>
> >> The TU77 was much faster.  Backup/verify at 125 ips was a lot better
> >> than anything off the Unibus in the day.
>
> >>> I put in a few fourteen hour days doing BACKUP and RESTORE to remedy
> >>> disk/file fragmentation.  I also put in a good deal of time trying to
> >>> convince users that they should allocate a reasonable amount of
> >>> contiguous disk space to hold their data.
>
> >>> Eventually, somebody wrote some software that could defragment an ODS-2
> >>> file system without doing a backup and restore.
>
> >> I remember doing DSC on VAX/VMS 2.x when doing installs... Not too bad
> >> with a string of TU77's.  OK when going disk to disk on RP06's too.
>
> >> (Long time since Princeton.  Was there a year ago at a meeting.  They're
> >> moving to a new datacenter.  Time flies.
>
> >> Bill
>
> >What are they doing with "80 Prospect Street" now?  When I was still
> >working at Princeton, they had a "motor-generator" providing DC for the
> >360/91.  It was about the size of a Greyhound Bus!  The computer room
> >was big enough to play football in!
>
> Whoa... how long did they run a 360/91.  I was last in front of a 360
> at Monmouth Medical  when I worked for DEC in 85 or 86.
>
> >Time moves on and I've got more computing power and storage underneath
> >my desk!
>
> My slow obsolete android 2.x tablet's probably got a 360 worth of power
> in it. 8-).
>
> Bill
> --
> --
> Digital had it then.  Don't you wish you could buy it now!
>               pechter-at-pechter.dyndns.org

You know you can get SIMH for Android, right? One of the ways to get
it without building it yourself is in the Marketplace where it comes
bundled with a paid-for Telnet app. You then need a way of getting the
disk image on to the phone (e.g. as a file from another SIMH
elsewhere?).

Who wants to be first to post a report of how well it runs, i.e. a
Software Performance Report for VMS on a phone?

[I had a low cost Android, a ZTE Blade, a year or so ago but didn't
get on with it and certainly never got as far as attempting SIMH.
After the Blade got too irritating I acquired a used Nokia N71, which
works much better for me as a phone and messaging device than the
Blade did. I may try again one day.]