The increases in computer hardware efficiency and density and improvements in related tooling is all quite remarkable.

In the mid 1980s, a herd of DEC VAXen (VAX-11/780-5, 2 × VAX-11/750, and a runt VAX-11/730 with the idiot, err, with the integrated disk controller IDC730 and an R80) were about a third of the ~3-ton AC chiller load, a #PRIME 2250 Rabbit (or ilk) was another third of the load, and a #IBM 4361 chest-freezer #mainframe was the remainder.

The VAXen were a little more than two ~10 meter rows of 19" racks, so a fair amount of the available floorspace.

With the tractor-feed printers, and with 19" racks of dresser-drawer-sized hard disk drives, and nine-track tape drives, a DEC PDC power distribution center—an ever-humming hydra built from a power transformer and arm-sized electrical cabling feeding power into the data center servers—and the rest of the common 1980s-era server accoutrements, and a pair of AC chillers, that whole data center was close to 15 meters square.

Running backups on the #DEC gear would wake up the second ~redundant chiller with the heat from the nine-track drives, and from the HDDs, too.

That two-drawer filing-cabinet-sized little PRIME box was just amazingly hot. And not "hot in a good way" hot. Just hot. Swelteringly hot. Got AC problems? Power down the Prime.

Where have we gotten to, some 35 years on?

A recent smartphone will outrun that whole herd of VAXen, has more memory and more storage and more cores, and quite possibly might outrun that whole data center. Though that IBM mainframe was fast for its era, and silly-fast at abending if the job setup wasn't just so.

Development tools and server operations tooling have all seen a massive increase in capabilities and features and scale and scope, too.

The Apple Xcode IDE is so far past pre-Y2K edit-compile-link-debug, and so far past an early such as LSEDIT, that there's really just no comparison. (But if edit-compile-link-debug works for you and yours, or if your critical apps are still based on #VAX, by all means, go for it. I won't makefile, err, won't make you change.)

We're also far past 1980s-era #DECnet, #SNA, and the rest, and the insecurity of the era. Sniffing DECnet, IP, or DECserver LAT traffic was trivial, too. (Some might make the case that attackers have no idea that DECnet even exists, or how to look for it, of course.)

Ah, well. Times change. The old stuff was good for its time, and can sometimes even still be useful, but IT and expectations and tooling have all moved on. And gotten immensely denser, and more power-efficient.

That I can hold that data center in my hand...

Anyone else out there still have to deal with legacy networking protocols like IPX?

#networking #legacy #ipx #decnet

Beep boop, buy a #DEC #VAX 11/780 & 11/750 to learn all the facts. Better make sure the Father Christmas worm doesn’t get onto the DECnet just to send a Christmas greeting from "Father Christmas" from the affected system too.

Hard to believe these computers are roughly 41 to 42 years old now

#Retro #RetroComputing #RetroTechnology #RetroTech #Vintage #DigitalEquipmentCorporation #Coloured #Ad #1980 #Fortran #COBOL #DECnet #VintageTechnology

I have a habit of mirroring retrocomputing projects on my Github organization so that I can patch and integrate them. The most recent addition is PyDECnet, a user-mode #DECnet Phase IV stack that can be used to connect to #HECnet - and it is under relatively active development upstream.

#retrocomputing #openvms #vax
https://github.com/retroprom/pydecnet/tree/master/pydecnet

The INT3 newsletter for week 48 is now up and ready to help you ease into the weekend while learning interesting things. Does reading this count as work you ask ? Yes, yes it does 😁 .

https://int3.substack.com/p/stuff-for-the-stash-week-48

This week’s stories cover #sgx , #clanguage , #carhacking, #awsnitro, #apple , #esim , #scada , #riscv , #decnet, #historicalcomputing, #freebsd , #bluetooth , #vulnerabilities , #icssecurity, #otsecurity, #nis2 and more !

@scottmatter Once upon a time it was... remembering sending emails from DECnet to bitnet
#DECnet #bitnet

A memory about #email..

Around 1989 or so, I was in Massachusetts on a call with to a colleague in #Washington, #DC,. I was working at #DEC (Digital Equipment Corporation) on their internal #DECnet network, and I forget how he was connected (if I ever knew).

At any rate, he asked me to send him something and I did, and we continued speaking. We were both utterly astonished to hear the "feep" of its arrival in his inbox a few minutes later while we were still on the phone. Unheard-of speed.

@timhadley It looks like the hobbyist program is back, even. https://www.openvmshobbyist.com/forum/viewthread.php?forum_id=10&thread_id=2363 Takes a fair bit of digging but there it is.

My boss in the 90s was an old DEC fan. Told me many stories of how good #DECnet and #VMScluster was. I owned a 600MHz 21164a Alpha in the late 90s myself, but only ever ran Linux on the thing. I still have it in my attic; it was the most expensive computer I've ever purchased and I can't quite let go of it, despite my Raspberry Pi being more powerful now 🙂

#Linux:

#DECnet könnte aus dem #Kernel fliegen.

#Microsoft-Entwickler Stephen Hemminger fordert auf #Kernel.org-Mailinglisten, das Protokoll aus dem Kernel zu nehmen und in ein Museum zu stellen. ...

https://www.golem.de/news/linux-decnet-koennte-aus-dem-kernel-fliegen-2208-167498.html

#Linux:

#DECnet könnte aus dem #Kernel fliegen.

#Microsoft-Entwickler Stephen Hemminger fordert auf #Kernel.org-Mailinglisten, das Protokoll aus dem Kernel zu nehmen und in ein Museum zu stellen. ...

https://www.golem.de/news/linux-decnet-koennte-aus-dem-kernel-fliegen-2208-167498.html

#lineart Dominate the #DECNet!