Re: Convex documentation online (C220 arrived)

[Camiel Vanderhoeven via cctalk]

On 8/7/17, 10:35 PM, "cctalk on behalf of Mark J. Blair via cctalk"
 wrote:


>
>> On Aug 7, 2017, at 12:13 AM, Camiel Vanderhoeven
>> wrote:
>> 
>> That would have been the CPU cabinet for the C240 (which is twice as
>>wide
>> as the C220¹s CPU cabinet. The C240¹s CPU consumes - i.e. converts to
>>heat
>> - about 20 kilowatts of power, so that would indeed have created a
>>hotspot
>> in a computer room. It will surely create a hotspot in my barn!
>
>
>Ok, that makes sense. All I remember is that from the rear side of the
>cabinet, it was behind the exhaust vents at the lower right corner that
>was the optimal place in the computer room to curl up in a fetal position
>at 6AM, when the main building A/C came on and the computer room
>temperature plummeted, right about when the metabolism of an exhausted
>college student working a graveyard computer operator shift was at
>minimum. But it was all worth it for a key to the computer room, and
>unlimited root access on Sun workstations when most students were lucky
>to get a small quota on the heavily-loaded Sequent Symmetry series
>machine. Oh, and they paid me, too. :)

Lower right corner when seen from the back sounds right, as the CPU
cabinets are usually on the left on these machines. I guess there’s no
reason they couldn’t be on the other side, but in all the pictures I’ve
ever seen - as well as on my machines - the CPU’s on the left.

It sounds like you had the same student job at your university as I had at
mine. One of the job perks for me was that I got to take a decommissioned
supercomputer (Alliant FX/2800) home :-)

>That C240 also had the nicest 9-track drive in the room. Most of my tape
>mounts were on the TU77 next to the VAX-11/780 (or maybe 785?), but I
>always liked working with that drive on the C240. I no longer recall
>which company manufactured its transport, but it was really fast.

It was made by STC (Storage Technology Corporation), which is owned by
Oracle, and known as StorageTek these days. It uses a STC-proprietary
interface, and Convex built their own interface board for high-speed
operation for it. One of the ways they got it to run fast was to use very
large blocks (which not all tape drives can read, as I found out when I
was making images of the tapes I have!)

Camiel

Re: Convex documentation online (C220 arrived)

[Mark J. Blair via cctalk]

> On Aug 7, 2017, at 12:13 AM, Camiel Vanderhoeven 
>  wrote:
> 
> That would have been the CPU cabinet for the C240 (which is twice as wide
> as the C220¹s CPU cabinet. The C240¹s CPU consumes - i.e. converts to heat
> - about 20 kilowatts of power, so that would indeed have created a hotspot
> in a computer room. It will surely create a hotspot in my barn!


Ok, that makes sense. All I remember is that from the rear side of the cabinet, 
it was behind the exhaust vents at the lower right corner that was the optimal 
place in the computer room to curl up in a fetal position at 6AM, when the main 
building A/C came on and the computer room temperature plummeted, right about 
when the metabolism of an exhausted college student working a graveyard 
computer operator shift was at minimum. But it was all worth it for a key to 
the computer room, and unlimited root access on Sun workstations when most 
students were lucky to get a small quota on the heavily-loaded Sequent Symmetry 
series machine. Oh, and they paid me, too. :)

That C240 also had the nicest 9-track drive in the room. Most of my tape mounts 
were on the TU77 next to the VAX-11/780 (or maybe 785?), but I always liked 
working with that drive on the C240. I no longer recall which company 
manufactured its transport, but it was really fast.

> 
> I¹m getting a C240 two weeks from now. Between the C220, the C240, and the
> two C1s, I hope to be able to  get at least one Convex up and running
> ConvexOS.

That is really cool, and it sounds like you have all of your barn heating needs 
sorted out, too!


-- 
Mark J. Blair, NF6X 
http://www.nf6x.net/

Re: Convex documentation online (C220 arrived)

[Dennis Boone via cctalk]

 > That would have been the CPU cabinet for the C240 (which is twice as
 > wide as the C220^1s CPU cabinet. The C240^1s CPU consumes -
 > i.e. converts to heat - about 20 kilowatts of power, so that would
 > indeed have created a hotspot in a computer room. It will surely
 > create a hotspot in my barn!

Behind the C240 CPU cabinet was certainly the warmest area in our data
center.  The BBN Butterfly machine was not _too_ far behind, but the
vaxen and IBM machines weren't even close.

De

Re: Convex documentation online (C220 arrived)

[Camiel Vanderhoeven via cctalk]

On 8/6/17, 7:31 PM, "cctech on behalf of Mark J. Blair via cctech"
 wrote:


>Wow! I fondly remember the air exhaust from the power supply cabinet of
>the Convex C240 as being the warmest spot in the UCI computer room at
>6AM, when the main Computer Science building A/C turned on and the
>computer room temperature plummeted. Maybe I should finally learn how to
>use one for its designed purpose? :)

That would have been the CPU cabinet for the C240 (which is twice as wide
as the C220¹s CPU cabinet. The C240¹s CPU consumes - i.e. converts to heat
- about 20 kilowatts of power, so that would indeed have created a hotspot
in a computer room. It will surely create a hotspot in my barn!

I¹m getting a C240 two weeks from now. Between the C220, the C240, and the
two C1s, I hope to be able to  get at least one Convex up and running
ConvexOS.

Camiel

Re: Convex documentation online (C220 arrived)

[Mark J. Blair via cctalk]

Wow! I fondly remember the air exhaust from the power supply cabinet of the 
Convex C240 as being the warmest spot in the UCI computer room at 6AM, when the 
main Computer Science building A/C turned on and the computer room temperature 
plummeted. Maybe I should finally learn how to use one for its designed 
purpose? :)


-- 
Mark J. Blair, NF6X 
http://www.nf6x.net/

Re: Convex documentation online (C220 arrived)

[Ethan via cctalk]

My Convex C220 arrived about a week ago, so I now have a C1, C1 XL, and a
C220. A C240 will follow in a few weeks. Along with the C220 came some
installation tapes, and a large volume of documentation (some 300
documents). As long as I don¹t receive any objections to the being online
from HP (current owner of Convex), I¹ve put most of the loose-leaf hardware
documentation online at


Amazing! I saw a Convex system at auction many years ago, didn't think I 
would ever see another one in the wild let alone being restored to working 
condition. Kudos!


- Ethan


--
Ethan O'Toole

Re: Convex documentation online (C220 arrived)

[Al Kossow via cctalk]

On 8/3/17 2:45 PM, Curious Marc via cctech wrote:
> Wow, that's mighty impressive. I knew about your FPGA 360/65 project but had 
> never seen your website before.

There is also a simulation book in the works in cooperation with 'vaxman' 
http://www.analogmuseum.org/english/about_me/

https://www.lehmanns.de/shop/mathematik-informatik/33158923-9783110413199-simulation-of-computers

Re: Convex documentation online (C220 arrived)

[Curious Marc via cctalk]

Wow, that's mighty impressive. I knew about your FPGA 360/65 project but had 
never seen your website before. I must visit next time I'm close to the 
Netherlands!
Marc

On Jul 29, 2017, at 11:17 PM, Camiel Vanderhoeven via cctech 
 wrote:

My Convex C220 arrived about a week ago, so I now have a C1, C1 XL, and a
C220. A C240 will follow in a few weeks. Along with the C220 came some
installation tapes, and a large volume of documentation (some 300
documents). As long as I don¹t receive any objections to the being online
from HP (current owner of Convex), I¹ve put most of the loose-leaf hardware
documentation online at
http://www.vaxbarn.com/index.php/2-uncategorised/609-convex-documentation.
This includes the theory of operation manual, which gives a nice description
of how the big vector processor works.

For those interesting in pictures of the machine and the boards installed,
http://www.vaxbarn.com/index.php/41-acquisitions/608-arrival-of-the-c220

Kind regards,

Camiel Vanderhoeven