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

[Trevor Cordes]

On  2 Jan, Daniel Thompson wrote:
> 
> 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

I seem to recall seeing an 850 f/w newer than 1.01 available a long time
ago back when it was still in the Power Personal division... but I could
be mistaken.  I guess if their current site doesn't have anything then
there's not much that can be done.

> 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?

Hmm, same story here.  I mainly used desktop Power Series machines and I
always get them confused with the Thinkpads.  I thought I had booted
into SMS on the thinkpad, but maybe not... maybe someone else can help
more than me on this?

You could also try scouring the groups.google.com archives of
comp.unix.aix (try advanced search) for references to these topics.
There was lots of good info flying around there back in 95-97.

> 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.

I have never attempted that, and have never read about it being
possible.  Perhaps with the correct IBM NIC they might have had support
for it, but like you said, it's doubtful.

> 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.

If you want to sell, check out the archives for this list.  Just a while
back there were a few posts by potential buyers.  Email them directly.

> 4) PowerPC Thinkpad 800 (6020-960), 16 MB RAM

I am *very* interested in more info on this model to add to my website.
I have never heard of it either.  Perhaps it was a prerelease or
IBM-internal model?

Any specs you may have on it (use my specs chart for reference
http://www.tecnopolis.ca/aixtp/tpcapab.html ) please send my way.  Also,
if you have a digital camera...

Sorry I couldn't have been more help.  Maybe someone else will know more
about these topics.