Replying to a message of mark lewis to Bob Ackley:

 BA>> Actually I just happen to have my own personal IBM 9672 - which is an
 BA>> IBM S/390 mainframe, complete with an Amdahl Spectris HD array
 BA>> (which was wiped before the company released it).  It's perfectly
 BA>> functional and was running right up to the moment I shut it down for
 BA>> good back in 2004.  While I don't have OS/390 for it I do have
 BA>> Debian Linux for the S/390, and if I had the juice (100 amp 3 phase
 BA>> service) and the scratch to pay for it ($3K/month) I could configure
 BA>> it with 255 virtual Linux systems - literally a server farm in a
 BA>> box.

 ml> know that feeling very well...i have a system36 sitting here holding
 ml> up the other end of the bench/desk... besides a few communication
 ml> cards, i only need some bootable 8inch flopies to bring this beast
 ml> back online... i won't even consider doing such for the electrical
 ml> costs, though...

If you did you'd find that SSSP is a piece of garbage.  SSSP is the OS IBM
developed for its System/3x line of minicomputers.  It lives on (sort of) in
OS/400, which can run native System/3 applications without modification.

 ml> however, i have brought a PDP11 online not to long
 ml> ago in the environs of an apartement complex in Va. Beach, Va... the
 ml> brownout was at least 30 minutes until the critter got fully spun up

It shouldn't take 30 minutes for one of them to spin up.  More like five.
If I could get my VAX to boot that's how long it would take - and the VAX
only needs 120v single phase.  My VAX doesn't have a floppy drive (or controller)
and for some reason it won't boot from tape (the book sez it will, but it won't
do it ).  Just happen to have Linux for the VAX, too .

A hospital I used to work in threw out their PDP-11 without asking me if I
wanted it .  They also offered me their Wang system, but not for free
(I did get a Wang PC clone from them, though).

--- FleetStreet 1.19+