21 Feb
2006
21 Feb
'06
4:16 a.m.
I'm interested in acquring an AT&T 3b2
computer. One of these systems
used to run a famous public UNIX system "killer". They also run #5ess
telephone switches, however the OS is different in that case
(DMERT/UNIX-RTR instead of whatever the consumer-level 3b2 runs).
If anyone has information on where to acquire these (I
saw the recent
discussion on 3b1s and I know they are more prolific than 3b2s-- infact
a friend of mine used to have a UNIX PC which we set up a BBS on).
The 3B2 was not the same machine as the one in 5ESS, which
was/is the 3B20D, a fairly large duplexed machine (two processors
that mutually checked each other). The 3B2 was a desktop.
The 3B20D wasn't sold commercially, as far as I know. There
was a 3B20S (multi-cabinet) that at least nominally
was commercially available.
Their ISAs were not quite the same, but some assembler language
tricks made the assembler-level languages look quite similar.
Dennis