[TUHS] Do you have any historical UNIX computers?

[Henry Bent]

Yet another reason why I suggested a SPARCstation 2 or 5; of all of the
machines from that time period those are ones that will at least be
reasonable with power consumption.

-Henry

On Tue, 10 Jun 2025 at 23:20, Dan Cross <crossd at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Tue, Jun 10, 2025 at 1:44 PM Clem Cole <clemc at ccc.com> wrote:
> > Can I suggest you start with OpenSIMH - https://OpenSimH.org and try
> running any a simulated system.   It's a lot cheaper and while quite the
> same has having the the actual hardware, a lot easier to manage and most
> everything you could do from the old days can be done on you personal
> computer.   If you want BlinkenLights, get one on of Occar's wonderful
> PiDP11 kits - https://obsolescence.wixsite.com/obsolescence/pidp-11
> (which run OpenSIMH behind his lights and switches). Again a lot small and
> will meet you budget constraints.
>
> Another side of that is power consumption. The older machines will
> absolutely drink energy; OpenSIMH on a modern SBC is so much more
> efficient in that regard.
>
>         - Dan C.
>
> > On Mon, Jun 9, 2025 at 2:08 PM Vicente Collares via TUHS <tuhs at tuhs.org>
> wrote:
> >>
> >> Hello Milo,
> >>
> >> On Mon, 9 Jun 2025 13:38:54 -0400
> >> Milo Velimirović <milovelimirovic at gmail.com> wrote:
> >>
> >> > What’s your budget and what’s your level of hardware technical skill?
> If budget is no concern, there are occasional complete pdp11 or vaxen on
> eBay. Or, you could get CPU cards and interfaces to piece together a
> system. If you go that route a Unibone or Qbone is highly recommended for
> both debugging and filling in hardwar gaps via emulation. Alternatively,
> there are several FPGA projects to emulate -11s.
> >>
> >> Buying a complete PDP-11 or VAX is the dream, but it's not what I'm
> >> aiming for to start. I was thinking of something like a UNIX
> >> workstation. I haven't thought about the possibility of piecing together
> >> a system using various cards. Thanks for pointing that out, I'll have to
> >> look into it.
> >>
> >> Budget is a concern for me. So ideally I would like to spend around $500
> >> USD on the actual computer. Is that realistic for the type of computer I
> >> mentioned above?
> >>
> >> I'm not hardware savvy, so I would have a limited ability to do repairs
> >> on the electronics. I do know someone who is though, so I might be able
> >> to get some help on this project.
> >>
> >> I wish you an excellent week,
> >>
> >> Vicente
> >> vicente at collares.ca
>
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