lunchbox VAXen, was Re: [HECnet] Introducing myself... and my little network

[Bob Armstrong]

Lunchboxes! :-)   And there are images for new boot ROMs available for
those
which will allow you to boot from the on-board SCSI host adapter, ...

  I've heard of this, but I haven't seen it.   As I recall, the onboard SCSI
adapter uses programmed I/O (no DMA!) so it's really slow.   For a TK50
nobody would ever notice, but for the system disk it's a problem.   Better to
cluster boot one, diskless.

  FWIW, an RD54 isn't necessary.   The 2000 can easily be convinced to use
_any_ MFM drive, DEC or not.     You can get VMS V4 on a 30 meg drive, maybe
even 20, if you're determined.   Long ago I wrote up a little description of
all the VS 2000 disk formatter parameters, what they meant, and how to fake
them for non-DEC drives.   Google ancient Usenet postings if you're
interested.

Bob