IBM RS/6000 POWERstation 230

[techfury90]

Grabbed this off eBay for $15 BIN the other day. FedEx says it should be here today (its out for delivery actually). Its a small pizzabox chassis (type 7011), just barely larger than a 610 or 6100. It has a 45 mhz "POWER Single Chip" CPU, and I don't know how much RAM in mine yet. It also nicely has more expansion than a 6100 (8 RAM slots, 1 PDS slot, 2 MCA slots). Later 7011s (model 250) are special in that they were the world's first machines to use the 601 when they came out in October 1993. I like to think of it is a souped up 6100, just not made by Apple, and running UNIX.

 

[Bunsen]

That's pretty cool. pixplz

 

[techfury90]

Mine hasn't showed up yet today (should be here within 6 hours), but here's pics of someone's -250 (66 mhz 601): http://www.focushacks.com/photo/rs6k/

 

[techfury90]

And it came. Turns out it has an extra Ethernet card in it. But here's the worst part. Someone stole the RAM. Luckily, I had 16 mb worth for it, but I need more to really do anything. It boots fine though!

 

[paws]

Ugly as sin! Cool as heck!

It seems this needs 72 pin SIMMs, like the 6100? Those aren't too hard to find. I've got a couple of 16MB sticks and some 32MB I'm not sure I need - if you put them in this thing I might even let 2x16 go for shipping (though I'm in Europe). It needs pairs, right? I just need to check where mine actually are - too many early 90's computer to remember...

 

[techfury90]

Yeah, 72 pin true parity is all it needs. Unfortunately, mine has the older boot ROM, so its limited to 8 MB sticks.

 

[techfury90]

Just tried booting it, it boots off its HD in service mode . Seems to have 4.1.5 installed. Setting up NIM on my 7248 right now so I can easily reinstall a new AIX copy via Ethernet.

 

[techfury90]

Pics:

http://i25.tinypic.com/2uf6rg2.jpg

http://i29.tinypic.com/30xg9qt.jpg

http://i27.tinypic.com/2yy4cg3.jpg

http://i29.tinypic.com/29ei1dz.jpg

http://i30.tinypic.com/11kk0f4.jpg

 

[QuadSix50]

Pics:http://i25.tinypic.com/2uf6rg2.jpg

http://i29.tinypic.com/30xg9qt.jpg

http://i27.tinypic.com/2yy4cg3.jpg

http://i29.tinypic.com/29ei1dz.jpg

http://i30.tinypic.com/11kk0f4.jpg

Lovely! }

 

[paws]

Yeah, 72 pin true parity is all it needs. Unfortunately, mine has the older boot ROM, so its limited to 8 MB sticks.

Ah, damn. I don't have any of those.

Cool piece of hardware though!

 

[techfury90]

Turns out the HD is an 8.2 gig drive too. The 7011 is also nice and silent too!

 

[techfury90]

Found 2 sticks for it, so that'll help a bit.

 

[MultiFinder]

/me fires you for buying IBM

 

[Bunsen]

Tis a delightfully fugly little box. Looks like it's around the size of a 605?

 

[techfury90]

Its near identical in size to a 610/660/6100.

 

[Cory5412]

/me fires you for buying IBM

But... But... I thought nobody ever got fired for buying IBM?

This shatters my reality, but does nothing to help rebuild it afterward.

 

[TheDoctor]

/me fires you for buying IBM

Hope not, I just ordered two IBM x3500 servers for work.

 

[mac-man6]

I believe he's referencing the the classic enemy of 68k mac, the IBM PC running MS DOS. But in the end IBM helped make PPC processors for the newer macs.

Don't worry, IBM does have some loyal fans, just ask anyone if they'd rather the Thinkpad X300 or a MacBook Air.

I like IBM manuals because they're like the Apple's because they

A) Are written in proper English

B) Have part listings and compatible parts (you can tells what safe to swap between models)

C) Good details about components (revisions, voltages, connection types)

D) Take apart diagrams and

E) Troubleshooting diagrams

 

[Bunsen]

And what's more, they're freely available. Hear that Apple??? /shakes fist at sky