Hi,
I have a film recorder originally built by the MacDonald Dettwiler
Associates (MDA) which was designed to connect to VAX systems through
a Unibus interface/controller. I have successfully hosted it on an old
MicroVAX II through a Qniverter, but I'm currently driving it with
an APTEC IOC/24 I/O computer with home grown device drivers. The APTEC
IOC/24 can drive it at its full speed regardless of activity levels on
the MicroVAX. The film recorder does not have a very high aggregate
I/O requirement, but if it doesn't get data exactly when it needs it, it
will create artifacts on the film. (A VAX 8600 can not have more than
10% activity and run the film recorder at the same time.) For a number
of reasons, I'd like to replace the APTEC IOC/24 with a host computer
with more CPU and I/O performance; an ALPHA AXP if possible. But it
would mean a couple of things have to be done: First, I'll need a Unibus
connection to the ALPHA. Second, I'll need to develop a driver for it,
either through VMS or OSF, preferably OSF. So do such things exist?
There is another alternative if the ALPHA Unibus setup can not be done:
I can get a higher speed MicroVAX system to replace the MicroVAX II ad
the APTEC. Does anyone know what was the highest performance MicroVAX
that had a QBus?
Thanks for any information.
eyc
Received on Wed Mar 15 1995 - 02:21:00 NZDT