PS/2 Model 95 by any other name 8-)

[Keith Matthews]

Today I loaded PC DOS 7.0 and OS/2 3 Warp onto an IBM 3172 Mainframe Service Processor Controller, which is really just a PS/2 model 95 (Pentium 90) machine under the covers in a big ugly Industrial style case.

Took a bit of mucking around to find an LCD display that would handle the old XGA2 Microchannel cards output, and also had to scrape up a 320 MB SCSI drive.

I was amazed when the 20+ year old 320MB scsi drive I used, which was actually an RS/6000 model 320 part worked perfectly, without any bad sectors.

Mind you I had 3 to choose from. 1 didn't even power up, and the 3rd wouldn't format. Not a bad result though.

Got the Reference Disk and Diagnostic Disk off the Web, recreated the System Partition on the Hard Drive, and Installed DOS and OS/2 with a boot manager.

Cool.



Memories,........ doo doo doo doo doo doo dooo.......


__________________
Regards.......GeoKM
oooOOOooo

[luckybob]

seriously? No pictures.

SHAME.

[Keith Matthews]

seriously? No pictures.

SHAME.

Pictures are coming

[Keith Matthews]

seriously? No pictures.

SHAME.

Here is the 3172 Service Processor in all its Glory

IMG_1439.jpg

And Inside

IMG_1440.jpg
IMG_1441.jpg

The SCSI Hard Drive, Was Ex RS/6000 model 320H. Boy I replaced a few of these in my day!

IMG_1445.jpg

And here is what I loaded.....

Amazing. Not a single error on the HDD or the Diskettes.

IMG_1446.jpg

[luckybob]

yep. It damn sure looks like a 8595 on the inside. That hard drive placement sucks though. How usable is the front panel?

[Keith Matthews]

yep. It damn sure looks like a 8595 on the inside. That hard drive placement sucks though. How usable is the front panel?

It's not.

I rekon it was purely for the use of the the controller microcode as it is connected via a ribbon cable internally to the parallel port. I guess one could try and work out how to talk to it. . It actually causes the Parallel Port diags to fail, so it might be a non standard wiring of some kind?


There is no actual LCD or OP panel like on an actual 8595. The header where the cable would normally connect only has a small cable connecting the speaker. 8-/

Pretty nice machine though for DOS and OS/2. Fly's

Only has 32MB Memory installed in 4 x 8MB. With 4 more available mem slots. Still More than enough in the day!

[luckybob]

if it is different, that's sad. I was hoping for a new source for simms for my 9595. :P I really want 8x 32mb simms