More on trying to identify pre iSeries AS/400 system units -- MIDRANGE-L

Hello again Midrangers,

First of all thankyou to everyone who kindly spent some of their time to
give me help and point me at useful resources after my first post to
midrange-l yesterday.  Much appreciated everybody!

Well after a morning digesting on these new leads I have some more
queries...

I've spent some time this morning looking inside the two beige cabinets
(dimensions 65cm wide, 92cm deep and 160cm high).  I initially thought I had
an AS/400 system in each cabinet.  This is not the case however.  Both
cabinets are "9406 system unit expansion FC 5042" units.  The first one
contains (going from the bottom to the top):

(a)
A backplane for plugging in boards.  26 slots.  1-13 at the back. 14 to 26
at the front.  Many of the slots have blanking plates.

(b)
A unit called the "9406 FC 5042".  I initially thought this must be the
AS/400 itself.  Rather a daft assumption now that I look back :-)  It is too
small for something of this age and I couldn't see any internal disk (DASD).
My guess now is that this is the power supply for the backplane immediately
below it.

(c)
A 9337 Model 10 disk array.

(d)
Another 9337 Model 10 disk array.

My second 9406 cabinet is similar but instead of two disk arrays it has an
8inch floppy diskette drive and a 1/2inch tape drive.

So I've now decided that all I have is two expansion cabinets with two disk
arrays, an 8inch floppy and a 1/2inch tape drive.  No processor, main
storage (RAM) or internal disk (DASD) at all.

Does this sound reasonable?

Also does the "FC" in "9406 FC 5042" actually stand for anything?

Best regards,

Andy Cranston.

-----Original Message-----
From: Andy Cranston [mailto:a.cranston@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: 18 June 2003 10:25
To: 'midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx'
Subject: Trying to identify pre iSeries AS/400 system units


Hello Midrangers,

This is my first posting to the list.

I have been assigned the task of identifying just over a dozen AS/400 system
units.  They are in three broad visual categories:

(1)
A couple of beige coloured cabinets (65cm wide, 92cm deep, 160cm high).
Both cabinets are labelled "9406 FC 5042".  Both have a expansion bay (slots
front and back).  One has a 8inch floppy drive (that takes be back :-) and a
1/2inch reel to reel tape.  The other has two DASD units.  I think this is
one of the first series of AS/400 systems and that the two cabinets combine
to make one working system but I'm only guessing.

(2)
Black cabinets on castors (49cm wide, 67cm deep, 96cm high).  Some have
serial numbers and some don't.  Here is an example serial number:
MS940644G8010.  This particular system has a sticky label on it saying
"9406-50S" which I take to mean a model 50S AS/400.  However most of these
cabinets don't have any obvious serial number and hence I currently haven't
a clue what they are.

(3)
Black cabinets on castors again (110cm wide, 67cm deep, 96cm high).  These
are similar to the other black cabinets but appear to have what looks like
some sort of UPS'ed power supply attached to the side.  Again only a guess.

Both types of black cabinets have one of the following markings:

  Type 9406
  FC 5062
  F/C 5080
  FC 5082
  FC 5072
  FC 5062

Being an AS/400 newbie I'm at a loss at how to identify things from a
hardware level.  The identification will have to be using visual means as I
can't boot any of the systems.

My gut feeling is that most if not all of these systems (and any modular
components within them) have long been outdated and are now commercially
worthless but I need to at least be able to report what the systems actually
are.

Any help gratefully recieved.

I have some pictures of some of each type of cabinet which I can email to
anyone generous enough to help me in my quest.  If more detail is needed
from me please advise.

Thanks in advance.

Regards,

Andy Cranston.

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