[Info-vax] VMS 5.0

Bob Eager news0001 at eager.cx
Mon Nov 14 18:16:20 EST 2011


On Mon, 14 Nov 2011 13:18:25 -0800, John Wallace wrote:

> 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 just booted the BSD 4.3 image for the VAX, and that went OK. No VMS 
image there but I shall do one....

Samsung Galaxy S2, although it won't use both cores!
-- 
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