OK, I assumed the 6611s used the NSFnet type cards. Artic960s are different animals - but probably very similar in idea.
My memory is hazy, but I think the NSFnet cards were referred to as Hawthornes. Somewhere around here I have one of the really early 386 based routing cards - a weird double height Microchannel card (the RS/6000s were RPQ'd with extra tall chassis to accommodate them). Anyway, I would like to get a 6611, but I do not think very many were made at all. -- Will On Thu, Nov 1, 2018 at 6:19 PM Paul Berger via cctalk <cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote: > > The machine type was 6611 and there where three model, the smallest was > based on a 7011 the mid size one was based on a 7012 and the largest was > based on a 7013. > > The base card is an Artic 960 card which is just a processor card with > some memory that gets an application loaded on the fly. The top > interface card has a lot to do with determining what the function of the > card sandwich is, there should be a X-Y type code on the back of the > card that would define the interface. They where used for all kinds of > things like Synchronous communications, X25 and network accelerators. > Some of the interfaces cards used in the 6611 where unique to it and > never made it to the "standard" RS/6000 line. There was also a PCI > version of the Artic 960 but by the time it came along the 6611 was long > gone. > > Paul. > > > On 2018-11-01 1:15 PM, William Donzelli via cctalk wrote: > >> So, what is this i960-based card for? > > They were the routers. At the core nodes of the network, there would > > be a big RS/6000s (very early POWER1 types) that would each do about > > 4-5 high speed interfaces (FDDI, HSSI, and 10base2). Each interface > > was one of these cards, so each of the big RS/6000s would have about > > 4-5 of these cards. > > > > IBM tried to commercialize the design, but it was doomed - the routing > > engines were very fast, but the internet quickly outgrew the > > architecture of the engines, and they apparently needed a complete > > redesign to compete. IBM did release very few of these RS/6000s to the > > public (I think RS/6000-320Hs with a fancy tag - machine type 6767?). > > I have only seen one of these routers in the wild, but most of the > > real NSFnet ones (I was decommissioning them, one time with a Sawzall > > because of some live tangled cables). > > > >> Could it be related to what you > >> say in your post? > >> > >> https://imgur.com/NIvQPBv > > Possibly related, but that card is not one of the NSFnet ones. > > > > -- > > Will >
