[Info-vax] Next release of OpenVMS x86

[Terry Kennedy]

On Tuesday, July 14, 2020 at 12:00:15 AM UTC-4, roge... at gmail.com wrote:
> not sure it proved anything; when i gummed one into a microvax 2000
> along with a half-height mfm drive, i had to cut a notch in one of 
> the brackets because a flexi-circuit ran just outside the form factor.

A lot of 5.25" form factor compliance testing was done the way airlines
have you check if your carry-on will fit in the overhead bin - if you
can get it most of the way into the sample holder and then stomp on it
to make it fit the rest of the way in, you were good to go, right up
until you were on the plane and discovered it wouldn't actually fit.

The Evotek 5540 is another of those odd drives (the 5540 was supposed
to be the RD52, but due to reliability issues it was dropped, which is
the reason the formatter asks you if the RD52 has 1 or 2 LEDs). The only
real way to get the 5540 into most "standard size compliant" cases was
to remove the faceplate, put the drive in from the inside and then snap
the faceplate on (and connect the LED cable).

Modern stuff is so much better at being standards-compliant and standard
sized. Part of that is that major system builders like Dell and Lenovo
are buying drives from a number of different vendors and putting them
into various high-density hot-swap chassis. And the whitebox vendors
like Supermicro are also doing a good job.