[Info-vax] "funny" thing on the usual auction site...

[Chris Scheers]

Steven Schweda wrote:
>> VAXstation 3100-class boxes shipped in two configurations; with two
>> rows of cooling slots (models 30 and 40), and taller boxes with three
> 
>    Shorter: 30 (older, slower) and 38 (newer, faster)?
> 
>> rows of slots (models 38 and 48).   There were no particular software
> 
>    Taller: 40 (older, slower) and 48 (newer, faster)?
> 
>> differences between the models 30 and 38, and the models 40 and 48,
>> except in terms of physical expansion capabilities within the box.
> 
>    Or am _I_ confused?
> 
>    Other than CPU speed, I'd guess that a 30/40 was more
> likely to have an ST506/SCSI card, and a 38/48 was more
> likely to have a SCSI/SCSI card,  (Especially prized are the
> early ST506/SCSI cards, which had all the parts needed
> (except, perhaps the connectors) to use RD-series (MFM) hard
> disks.  Of course, those may now be even harder to find than
> SCSI floppy drives.)

The VAXstation 3100 model 30/40 are electrically the same.  They use the 
same motherboard and VMS identifies them identically.  The only 
difference is the extra drive mounting capability in the model 40.

Likewise the models 38 and 48 are the electrically same.

And, if you have a later production version of the 30/40, you can change 
it into a 38/48 by changing a crystal and jumper.

VMS can't tell these apart and, IIRC, it just identifies them all as 
"VAXstation 3100 series".

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Chris Scheers, Applied Synergy, Inc.

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