[Info-vax] For sale: VAXstation 4000/90 128MB Fully Working and Tested

[Arne Vajhøj]

On 7/1/2022 6:50 PM, Bill Gunshannon wrote:
> On 7/1/22 16:02, Arne Vajhøj wrote:
>> On 7/1/2022 2:31 PM, Bill Gunshannon wrote:
>>> On 7/1/22 11:10, Arne Vajhøj wrote:
>>>> On 7/1/2022 10:52 AM, Dave Froble wrote:
>>>>> For some reason Arne, you seem to feel that that which isn't broken 
>>>>> must regardless be fixed.  I just don't understand such.
>>>>>
>>>>> I do believe that I mentioned that the Codis application/ERP did 
>>>>> what the users needed, is successfully running their businesses, 
>>>>> and just about anything else would be a step down, not up.
>>>>
>>>> Progress is not about replacing things that are broken. Progress
>>>> is about replacing things that work with something that work better.
>>>>
>>>> Horse wagons did not stop working. But trains, cars and airplanes non
>>>> the less replaced them for transportation.
>>>>
>>>> Your Basic code running on PDP-11 did not stop working, 
>>>
>>> Actually, it did.  But not because of the code but because someone
>>> decided to force the unneeded change by making the PDP-11 unobtanium!
>>>
>>>>                                                         but the
>>>> new shiny VMS VAX thing was just better.
>>>
>>> Was it?  My guess is that the only improvement that might have been
>>> needed for Dave's application was a faster processor.  And that was
>>> done even after the death of the PDP-11 in DEC's eyes.
>>
>> I don't think PDP-11 not being available was the driver behind the
>> move to VAX.
> 
> Not lack of availability at first, but complete stoppage of development
> played a major role.

I am not PDP-11 knowledgeable but per wikipedia the last models
(93 and 94) was released in 1990 at the time when VAX was getting
close to retirement.

>> PDP-11 production continue until 1997 when people were migrating
>> from VAX to Alpha - not to VAX.
> 
> How much development was done during that period?

Apparently some up to 1990. A decade after many did the move
to VAX.

>                                                 How many shrinks
> to increase speed?  How many new peripherals were made available?
> We didn't even get decent network cards or even disk controllers for
> things like SCSI except from third parties.  Trust me, people using
> PDP-11's could see the writing on the wall.

Both end customers, ISV's and DEC could see the writing on
the wall - 16 bit did not have a future.

Everybody (read: most) wanted first 32 bit and later 64 bit.

Arne