[HECnet] Drives for a VAX-11/730

[Bob Armstrong]

Clem Cole [clemc at ccc.com] wrote:
We had both SI and Emulex controllers (SBI based) ..... 
but I did not think those will work on a 730

  The 730 has a "built in" disk controller, the RB730.   Other than that
there was no special bus (e.g. SBI) for the 730 and all peripherals were
UNIBUS.   No SBI based controller will work in a 730.

performance based customers 

  No performance based customer would have even considered a 730 - it's tied
with the MicroVAX-I as the slowest two VAXes ever made.   The 730s claim to
fame was the small size and low cost.   You have to remember that it was
designed in the late 70s and shipped in the early 80s.   I worked at DEC at
the time and I saw one around 80 or 81, and I remember that at first I
thought they were putting me on.   I couldn't believe that they'd put an
entire VAX into a box that size! I thought it was really just another PDP-11
and someone had hacked the front panel graphics - after all, it looked just
like a 11/24 or 44.   But it was a real VAX, and it's still the smallest
UNIBUS VAX ever made.

Bob