DEC MicroVAX II

I picked this MicroVAX II system up from a fellow classic computer fan in the Netherlands after seeing it advertised on the Internet. The machine is housed in the floor standing version of the BA23 chassis and came with a TK50 tape drive. Inside the case were the following modules:

M7606	KA630-AA	MicroVAX II CPU 1-Mbyte RAM, FPU, Clock, boot/diagnostic ROM
M7608 (x2)	MS-360BB	4-Mbyte RAM for KA630
M3106	DZQ11-M	4-line, double-buffered, async multiplexor (EIA/RS-232)
M7546	TQK50-AA	TMSCP controller for TK50 tape unit
M7555	RQDX3	MFM disk controller (RXxx floppies and RDxx hard disks)
M7516-YM	DELQA-M	Qbus to Ethernet Turbo Module

The machine arrived in great condition; the innards had been thoroughly cleaned out so all that was required was a quick once-over the outside with a cloth.

Being a Q-bus machine, the peripheral modules will also work in the PDP-11/23+ I'm working on. This will be handy as the original diagnostics for the MicroVAX II are usually distributed on floppies and this machine has no floppy drive. On the PDP-11 however, I have a full installation of XXDP which should do the job just fine.

I've not yet done much with this system but I hope to install MicroVMS (a cut down version of OpenVMS tailored to the MicroVAX) eventually. I've signed up for the hobbyist license program but still need to get hold of the appropiate installation media. Other possibilities are DEC's own Ultix-32, 4.3BSD and even NetBSD. I got the installer for the latter to boot over the Ethernet interface but the RD53 I borrowed from the PDP-11/23+ wasn't too happy, spitting out errors while the installer tried to write its files.