DECstation 3100  ("PMAX" )

 
Click here for more pictures.

General Technical Information

HOSTNAME CYGNUS2
SYSTEM CPU MIPS R2000 @16.7 MHz
KN01 V6.71
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 DRIVES 2 x 2 GB SCSI disks (DEC RZ28)
CD-ROM DRIVE N/A
NETWORK 10 Mbps with selectable AUI or BNC 
OS ULTRIX V4.5
ULTRIX V3.1D
YEAR 1989
SPEED 13.7 VAX MIPS
POWER CONSUMPTION (MAX.) 180 W
COMMENTS ULTRIX V4.5 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"
PRICE '89 (8 MB RAM, 104MB disk, color monitor)
$9,900

History and other comments

I got this in the beginning of 2008. I wanted a PMAX again (I used to have one before) to try some older ULTRIX versions on.

You can see that it has a fully loaded motherboard with 12 x 2 MB = 24 MB SIMMs and the color framebuffer VSIMM, behind the RAM:

This picture was taken with the mezzanine plate for the internal SCSI devices removed.

Back to My Hardware Collection. 

Last updated:  18-2-2008