New Find: Apollo Workstation

[lincoln.fessenden]

Scott Stevens wrote:
> Today at a local municipal auction I got an exciting new find:
> 
> An H-P Apollo Series 735 Workstation.
> 
> I blew it, in part, because all I got was the main system, an external
> SCSI drive array (six differential SCSI drives in an HP box, with
> wide-diff cable) and the external CDROM.  Somebody else got the big
> monitor (the main system has three BNC out video) and I never saw the
> keyboard, but it was probably there.  I only spied the system in the
> mess of PC clones being sold as it came up for bid so I had to buy it in
> a group with six other Intel boxes for $5.  Shortly thereafter, and
> before I noticed it, the monitor for it (marked HP, row of BNC
> connectors on back, etc.) went for $1 to somebody else.  SERIOUS
> headslapping incident.  The part that really bugs me is it likely went
> to someone seeing 'big screen' and expecting a VGA connector on back.
> 
> The system has a single narrow SCSI drive inside, about half the memory
> slots are populated.  It looks like it was connected to the external
> CDROM drive (a matching HP case drive that I *happened* to get in an
> additional box lot) on the narrow SCSI connector, and the wide
> differential SCSI cable was still attached to the big box that has six
> additional drives in it.
> 
> I have a few questions for anybody on the list who has more experience
> with Apollo workstations:
> 
> Will I be able to use this system over a serial console?  I'm hoping it
> will 'just come up' with whatever system is on the hard drive, though I
> probably won't get past a login prompt.  This is the main way I use my
> Sun boxes (serial console).  Will it just sense the lack of a keyboard
> and bring up serial port A?
> 
> What OS did a system of this vintage run?  By looking at chip markings,
> etc, it appears to be about a 1990 vintage system.
> 
> I'm really upset with myself that I wasn't more 'on the ball' with this
> system.  I know I saw the video cable (triple BNC) go away to somebody
> else in another box they got really cheap, I saw the monitor there and
> know it went for a dollar, and judging by the completeness of parts of
> the system that I saw in boxes and the parts that I (thankfully) got, I
> am fairly certain there was probably an  HP keyboard in the mess, too. 
> I could have gotten a complete system here, and now I'm going to have to
> settle for serial console for the time being, if that's even possible.
> 
> Anyhow, it's a cool 'tall narrow' tower system to add to my collection
> and it's beautifully high quality construction.  I just wish I had it
> all.
> 
> -Scott

They are nice machines.  You can run HP/UX 10.20 on them and possibly 
11.x but I don't think it's officially supported.  They are also 
supposed to run Debian as well without too much hassle.  Slap a terminal 
on "A" and start whacking the escape key during self tests.  You should 
be able to get a serial console running on it - I know I run mine that 
way (also a 735).  Good luck.

-- 
-Linc Fessenden

In the Beginning there was nothing, which exploded - Yeah right...