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Where to buy? |
smccloud
Member
Posts: 5
Joined: 28.11.17 |
| Posted on December 01 2017 04:18 |
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I am just starting to play around with VMS on SIMH, but I'd love some actual hardware. Does anyone know where a good place to buy an inexpensive machine to get started using physical hardware. |
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RE: Where to buy? |
malmberg
Moderator
Posts: 530
Joined: 15.04.08 |
| Posted on December 01 2017 12:56 |
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Start by reading https://sourceforge.net/p/vms-ports/wiki/VMSHardware/
This will give you some idea of how much work you want to take on why certain models are cheaper than others.
The major problem with all VAX hardware is finding hard disks that work on them.
For most models though, you can VMScluster them over Ethernet from a a SimH system.
Cost can range from 0 to thousands of dollars depending on your luck.
You may want to post your location here and on comp.os.vms in case someone nearby is clearing out their stuff.
Stuff from e-bay or other online sellers is the cheapest route if you need to buy, but the cheap stuff may not work and need repair.
Because VAX systems are used in embedded controls for manufacturing, many companies will keep replacing exact parts on a obsolete VAX, even though it would cost them thousands less to upgrade to a more current VMS system.
This actually results in some very bizarre pricing on the open market.
At one time, a MicroVAX I CPU/memory set was selling for 2x what the MicroVAX II replacement parts were selling for. |
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RE: Where to buy? |
smccloud
Member
Posts: 5
Joined: 28.11.17 |
| Posted on December 04 2017 07:11 |
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My current issue is most machines I have run Windows, and I haven't been able to compile SimH myself on Windows yet so I do not have any sort of networking. Would a Raspberry Pi 3 be a good machine to run SimH on? |
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RE: Where to buy? |
malmberg
Moderator
Posts: 530
Joined: 15.04.08 |
| Posted on December 04 2017 13:36 |
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People have reported success in getting Raspberry Pi systems to build and run SimH. I have not yet tried that combination
People have also reported success in getting SimH to build on Microsoft Windows, how ever networking requires some type of tap (tuntap?) adapter.
You may want to look FreeAxp, which is hosting a forum on this site.
https://www.openvmshobbyist.com/forum/viewforum.php?forum_id=163
Just about any machine that runs Windows can be converted to a Linux machine.
You can also use virtualbox to have Windows host a Linux machine if it has enough resources.
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