IIRC a broker in Toronto was arrested for illegally shipping a black
market VAX to the USSR. The sad part of it was that it would have been
quote a legal end-use if the appropriate paperwork was done, but this
made it four times the price!,
Nigel Johnson, MSc., MIEEE, MCSE VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU
Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!
Skype: TILBURY2591
On 2022-10-17 18:40, Douglas Taylor via cctalk wrote:
On 10/17/2022 2:57 PM, Bill Gunshannon via cctalk wrote:
On 10/17/22 14:47, Joshua Rice via cctalk wrote:
Hi all,
After some discussion on reddit about russian PDP-11 clones, i made
the (perhaps erronous) claim that the PDP series in general was
cloned by the Soviets.
I’m aware that there was a lot of QBUS/LSI PDP-11 clones, and depite
poor documentation, there is significant evidence of PDP-8 clones.
Also, depite not strictly a “PDP”, the VAX series was also cloned.
I am not aware of any VAX clones but during the height of the
cold war real VAX were frequently illegally moved to the USSR
via India who had no problems with violating their agreements
with their allies.
Just like someone in the US bought a copy of BSD Unix for the
VAX and it was known to have been smuggled out of the country
in a diplomatic pouch via the Russian Embassy in DC.
bill
In the mid 1980's I went to inspect a complete VAX 780 that had been
confiscated by the US Gov't and was to be auctioned off. This was in
the Wash DC area and the computer was configured for 50Hz power and
was destined for South Africa. Its true destination was somewhere
else, probably Russia. It didn't make sense that the auction was open
to the public, but the equipment was export restricted.
