From: Bill/Carolyn Pechter Date: Sat, Mar 22 2003 5:37 pm Groups: alt.folklore.computers In article <2hph5b.p41...@teabag.cbhnet>, Chris Hedley wrote: >According to Hans Vlems : >> There is a chapter in the book where Tom West gets an opportunity to visit a >> site with a brand new VAX 11/780. He opened the system and inspected all the >> boards. IIRC his conclusion was that the parts must have cost DEC around >> $100k. The 11/780 sold for a lot more ($800k?). >Chris. Hans retells a great story which I don't believe is true. If I ever got my hands on a DG guy (or HP or IBM) with his hands in a VAX I'm installing on a customer site there would be some serious charges raised with the customer and management. IIRC the Vax wasn't the customers to play with until the install was signed off on and the machine was accepted -- so his hands were in something they shouldn't be and DG would've had some serious questions to answer to when DEC's execs called them on it. Now if some DG techie asked me to peek at the VAX boards while I was installing it I'd have shown them to him... (I shared sites with IBM, DG, HP stuff) and most of the techs didn't have any secrets as to the technology or os or specs... but noone puts there hands in MY VAX I'm installing except ME or the members of MY FIELD SERVICE BRANCH -- since I'm going to pay big time if it's not up, running and reliable.) Pulling boards out to touch them and count chips was a bad thing (especially with board seating issues that sometimes happened on the big 11/780/785 backplane). Bill -- +---------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Bill and/or Carolyn Pechter | pech...@shell.monmouth.com | | Bill Gates is a Persian cat and a monocle away from being a villain in | | a James Bond movie -- Dennis Miller | +---------------------------------------------------------------------------+