DECstation 3100  ("PMAX" )

 
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General Technical Information

HOSTNAME CYGNUS
SYSTEM CPU MIPS R2000 @16.7 MHz
CACHE (2nd, 1st D/I) 0 KB, 64 KB / 64 KB
RAM  24 MB  (Max. 24 MB)
SCSI BUS 1 x SCSI (5 MB/s)
OPTION BUS N/A
GRAPHICS Onboard 8-plane 1024x864 @60Hz
HARD DISK DRIVE 425 MB SCSI disk (DEC RZ25)
CD-ROM DRIVE N/A
NETWORK 10 Mbps with selectable AUI or BNC 
OS ULTRIX V4.5
YEAR 1989
SPEED 13.7 VAX MIPS
COMMENTS ULTRIX on this machine is medium fast. It has barely enough RAM to handle a couple of  X11 applications at the same time. However, the year 1989 when it was released, it was considered to be "the world's fastest UNIX workstation"
ESTIMATED PRICE '89 $18,000

History and other comments

I got this box for free in summer of Y2K, it had been used as a diskless X-terminal. It has been upgraded from a PMIN to PMAX. The enclosure still has the "DECstation 2100" sticker on it. I had to get a replacement motherboard because the PMIN motherboard died a sudden death, it would only show a bright white screen when the power was on. Now it works OK. Some extra RAM and the 8-plane framebuffer SIMM was given to me by a friendly guy at NetBSD's mailing list for PMAX (port-pmax@netbsd.org).

This system was sold December 2002 (for a nice price, I might add) and went to a good home. I can't keep all systems, this one and the SPARCstation 1+ was sold because I needed to move. 

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Last updated:  2-1-2007