VAXstation 4000 M60  ("PMARIAH" )


 
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General Technical Information

HOSTNAME GARGOYLE
SYSTEM CPU DEC VAX, MARIAH chip @55MHz
KA46-A V1.2-343-V4.0
CACHE (2nd, 1st) 256 KB, 2 KB
RAM  104 MB (Max. 104 MB)
SCSI BUS NCR53C94 SCSI (5 MB/s)
OPTION BUS Extension slot for TurboChannel adapter "TCA" (not present in this computer)
GRAPHICS LCG 8-plane 1280x1024 @66Hz
HARD DISK DRIVE 2 GB DEC RZ28M-E 5400 RPM and 4.5 GB IBM 5400 RPM SCSI disks
CD-ROM DRIVE External SCSI CDROM, Toshiba 6x
NETWORK 10 Mbps ethernet AUI / BNC
OS
 OpenVMS V7.3
YEAR 1991
SPEED 10 VAX MIPS
POWER CONSUMPTION (MAX.)
 465 W
COMMENTS This VAX workstation will only run either OpenVMS or NetBSD. It doesn't run ULTRIX. Running OpenVMS 7.3 + DECWindows/Motif  it feels pretty slow, like a slow DECstation. Support for the PMARIAH was added in VMS 5.5.
ESTIMATED PRICE '91 $40,000
ORIGINAL PRODUCT DESCRIPTION (Scanned from DEC's SOC Nov. 1992)

PROM Console and Bootlog Information


 >>> show config

KA46-A V1.2-343-V4.0
08-00-XX-XX-XX-XX
104MB
DEVNBR
   
 DEVNAM
   
 INFO





------
--------
--------------------------





1
NVR
OK
2
LCG
OK




HR - 8 PLN FB - V1.2
3
DZ
OK
4
CACHE
OK
5
MEM
OK




104MB = SY=8MB, S0/1=32MB, S2/3=32MB, S4/5=32MB
6
FPU
OK
7
IT
OK
8
SYS
OK
9
NI
?? 001 0172
10
SCSI
OK




0-DDRS-34 1-RZ28M   7-INITR
11
AUD
OK

  >>> b

      -DKA0

 %SYSBOOT-I-SYSBOOT Mapping the SYSDUMP.DMP on the System Disk
%SYSBOOT-I-SYSBOOT SYSDUMP.DMP on System Disk successfully mapped
%SYSBOOT-I-SYSBOOT Mapping PAGEFILE.SYS on the System Disk
%SYSBOOT-I-SYSBOOT SAVEDUMP parameter not set to protect the PAGEFILE.SYS
 
   OpenVMS (TM) VAX Version V7.3     Major version id = 1 Minor version id = 0
 
[...]

History and other comments

I bought this machine from a friend of mine in Germany in January 2005. Considering its amount of RAM it's a suitable platform to learn OpenVMS on even today since I don't have any specific needs for OpenVMS/Alpha. It's a bit slow but thenagain there aren't many applications available for OpenVMS/VAX either. It's more out of curiosity I wanted a real OpenVMS workstation to try the OpenVMS OS on. I do have some other older/slower VAXstations too, but these are very, very slow.

If you're lucky to find a decommissioned VAXstation 4000 now it will probably be free (not buying from any DEC reseller!) but it will most likely have less memory installed. I have seen "high-end" (but old) VAXstations and MicroVAXen go for around $1K on ebay in 2005 so for some people these are worth pretty much.

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Last updated:  13-8-2006