[aix thinkpad] General questions and info about AIX TPs (models 800, 850 and 860).

[Daniel Thompson]

Hello all,

 I am currently setting up a mobile classroom and wanted to try to use
these powerpc laptops to teach AIX system recovery basics.
The information from this group and Trevor's website has been very helpful.
With this and other resources I have been able to get to know these
machines, but wanted to bounce some questions off of the group.

1) I cannot find any firmware later than 1 for the 860 and 1.01 for the
850.  Has anybody seen anything later?  I looked at this location:
http://techsupport.services.ibm.com/server/mdownload/download.html#service

2) I do not believe there are SMS diskettes specifically for these
machines.  Attempts to boot with SMS diskettes from the following location
works, but going into the different icons locks the machine up.  Is anybody
aware of SMS diskettes for these machines?  I am aware that booting and
pressing F4 will get me basic features, but I am looking for network
booting ability?
ftp://service.boulder.ibm.com/pc/pccbbs/powerpc/

3) Does anybody know if it is possible to network boot these machines?
Since the NICS would be in the PCMCIA slots I doubt it, but wanted to
double check with those of you with more experience on these machines.

Playing around with these machines has certainly been fun, but without
network boot they have no practical value to me.  If I cannot get that to
work I will probably sell the two I own and redeploy the 3 that I found in
internal IBM surplus.  I'll probably just keep one as a showpiece.

BTW, the machines I currently am working with are (I have never read about
the model 800 before I saw it):

1) PowerPC Thinkpad 860 (7249), 96 MB RAM
2) PowerPC Thinkpad 850 (7249), 96 MB RAM
3) Two powerpc Thinkpad 850 (6042-9DD and 6042-96D), 64 MB RAM
4) PowerPC Thinkpad 800 (6020-960), 16 MB RAM

I have 3 power supplies, 5 floppies and 2 of the camera assemblies.  Misc.
NICS and Batteries.

If anybody needs any accessories (floppy, memory, NIC), send me a note and
I'll keep an eye out for them.  They come through the IBM surplus or local
2nd had shops every once in a while (Austin is a great place for old
hardware).  Also, if you are interested in the model 860 or 850 (7249) let
me know and I'll send you a note if I decide to get rid of them.  Currently
I have AIX 4.2.1 on both (with 4.1.5 X11 on the 860) and they seem to run
fine.

Regards,
  Dan Thompson
    512.695.1085
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