VAXft series
The VAXft series (VAX fault tolerant) were a series of fault tolerant VAX computers produced by DEC. They used redundancy to produce reliable operation.
Units contained dual CPUs and other components, mounted in separate backplanes in the cabinet (the complete set, which formed a functional computer, being denominated as a 'zone'), with a 'crosslink cable' running between the CPUs. The cable allowed hardware in the two CPUs to check, on an instruction-by-instruction basis, that they were producing identical results.
In addition to the CPU card, and at least one main memory card, each zone had at least one KFE52 system I/O controller module; the KFE52 provided a DSSI mass storage bus, an Ethernet interface, and two asynchronous serial line interfaces. (An MI bus connects the CPU to the KFE52(s).)
Some of the VAXft's fault tolerance features are implemented in software, the VAXft System Services software, which is needed to support those features.
VAXft models included:
Further reading
- VAXft Systems System Technical Description (EK-VXFT1-TD; not online)
- VAXft Systems Guide to VAX Fault Tolerant Systems
- William F. Bruckert, Carlos Alonso, James M. Melvin, Verification of the First Fault-tolerant VAX System, Digital Technical Journal, Volume 3, Number 1, Winter 1991 (pp. 81-87 of the PDF)
External links
- VAXft Systems Owner's Manual (EK-VXFT1-OM.004)
- VAXft Systems Configuration Guide (EK-VXFTB-PG-002)
- VAXft Systems Mini-Reference Guide (EK-VXFT1-HR.003)
