What to look for in a PDP machine?

[rdkeys at unity.ncsu.edu]

> Interesting, there may be a PDPsomethingorother machine come available in
> surplus here.  A quick glance at it showed it to be in a 1/2 height rack,
> with some custom name that meant nothing to me.  But, it had two rack
> cabinets about 6 inches high each, with definite looking DEC cards,
> 4 wide cards, with an interconnecting cable between the two cases.
> The thing had a half gig scsi drive and scsi tape (60 or 150mb).
> Alas, I was able only to make a quick glance at it, before I had to
> leave.  What might such a critter actually be?  It had half a dozen
> RS232 terminal lines out the back, and a wyse terminal sitting on top
> of the case.  It is not the kind of thing the PeeCee mongers are going
> to dive into, so it might go for a song if I wait a couple of weeks.
> It was not DEC badged, but definitely had what I would interpret as
> DEC boards inside.

Revisitation of the thing (my curiosity got the better of me and it was
only a couple blocks away), yields some more info.

A tag on the back says it is a scsi upgrade for a Digital Bright V.
The ID plate says it is a Model BF-111/64.

Examination of the cards indicated it was full of Perception Technologies
cards rather than DEC cards, with what looks like modem transformers on
them (10 cards and 80 ports?).  Is this a telephone system of some sort?

The drive cabinet had a panel on it with:

           RDY  1  WP
           RDY  0  WP
           HALT  RESTART
           DCOK    RUN

buttons on it.  That seems DECish.  The rest, I dunno.

Anyone have any ideas as to what it might be?

Thanks

Bob


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