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<title>Modern BSD Computing for Fun on a VAX!</title>
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<h1>BSDCan 2019</h1>
<h2>Modern BSD Computing for Fun on a VAX!</h2>
</div>

</div>


<div class="presentation">

<div class="slide">
<h1>Modern BSD Computing for Fun on a VAX!</h1>
<h3>Trying to use a VAX in today's world</h3>
<h4>Jeffrey Armstrong</h4>
</div>


<!-- ------------------- Intro ---------------------- -->


<div class="slide">
<h1>NetBSD 8 on a VAX</h1>
<ul>
<li><s>Retrocomputing</s></li>
<li>Modern OS</li>
<li>Modern Packages</li>
<li>Modern Workflow</li>
</ul>
</div>

<div class="slide">
<h1>Limitations</h1>
<ul>
	<li>Last VAX: ~2000</li>
	<li>32-bit Architecture</li>
	<li>Single Processor (generally...)</li>
</ul>
</div>


<div class="slide">
<h1>VAX 4000/200</h1>
<img style="float:right; height: 80%; width:30%;" src="vax4000.jpg" />
<ul>
	<li>KA660 CPU @ ~32MHz</li>
	<li>32MB RAM</li>
	<li>Emulex UC08 SCSI</li>
	<li>10Mb/s Ethernet</li>
	<li>Pure Qbus System</li>
</ul>
<div class="handout">
<ul>
	<li>Introduced January 1991</li>
	<li>Codenamed <em>Spitfire</em></li>
	<li>Fastest pure Qbus computer ever</li>
	<li>Entry-level server</li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>

<div class="slide">
<h1>VAXstation 3100 m38</h1>
<img style="float:right; height: 80%; width:30%;" src="vax3100.jpg" />
<ul>
	<li>KA42-B CPU @ ~16MHz</li>
	<li>32MB RAM</li>
	<li>10Mb/s Ethernet</li>
	<li>Monochrome Framebuffer</li>
</ul>
<div class="handout">
<ul>
	<li>Introduced ~1993</li>
	<li>Codenamed <em>PVAX rev 7</em></li>
	<li>Desktop Workstation</li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>






<!-- ------------------- Part 1 ---------------------- -->

<div class="slide">
<h1>Setting Up a VAX</h1>
<div class="slidecontent">
<img src="basic1.png" class="bigpicture" />
</div>
</div>



<div class="slide">
<h1>Setting Up a VAX</h1>
<ul>
	<li>Install NetBSD 8</li>
	<li>Bootstrap pkgsrc</li>
	<li>Install packages</li>
</ul>
</div>


<div class="slide">
<h1>Installing NetBSD 8</h1>
<ul>
	<li>Netboot using <strong>mopd</strong></li>
	<li>Boot server <em>must be</em> NetBSD</li>
	<li>First sign of bottlenecks...</li>
</ul>
</div>

<div class="slide">
<h1>Installing NetBSD 8</h1>

<!-- CPU stats -->

<pre>
Test execution summary:
    total time:                          19134.0100s
    total number of events:              10000
    total time taken by event execution: 19130.3700
    per-request statistics:
         min:                               1830.00ms
         avg:                               1913.04ms
         max:                               8840.00ms
         approx.  95 percentile:            2209.19ms
</pre>

</div>


<div class="slide">
<h1>Installing NetBSD 8</h1>

<pre>
Test execution summary:
    total time:                          45156.1800s
    total number of events:              10000
    total time taken by event execution: 45149.4100
    per-request statistics:
         min:                               3890.00ms
         avg:                               4514.94ms
         max:                              16040.00ms
         approx.  95 percentile:            7646.78ms
</pre>
</div>



<div class="slide">
<h1>Bootstrap pkgsrc</h1>
<ul>
	<li>2018Q4 Archive: 61MB</li>
	<li>2018Q4 Extracted: 466MB</li>
</ul> 
<br />
<br />
<br />
<pre>
vax# time tar -xzf pkgsrc-2018Q4.tar.gz -C /usr
    50109.89 real      2287.96 user     17527.31 sys
</pre>
</div>




<div class="slide">
<h1>Bootstrap pkgsrc</h1>
<pre>
===> bootstrap started: Tue Mar  5 11:25:56 UTC 2019
===> bootstrap ended:   Thu Mar  7 13:17:40 UTC 2019
   179510.09 real    109170.55 user     16631.73 sys
</pre>
</div>


<!-- ------------------- Part 2 ---------------------- -->

<div class="slide">
<h1>VAX as a Client</h1>
<img src="basic2.png" class="bigpicture" />
</div>



<div class="slide">
<h1>Client Necessities</h1>
<ul>
	<li>Web Browser</li>
	<li>Text Editor</li>
	<li>Languages...</li>
	<li>Source Control</li>
</ul>
</div>



<div class="slide">
<h1>Client Necessities</h1>
<p style="text-align:center;">
<img src="no_x.png" height="80%" width="30%" />
</p>
<div class="handout">
<ul>
	<li>No Framebuffers</li>
	<li>Fixed-frequency Monitors</li>
	<li>Toolkits...</li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>



<div class="slide">
<h1>Web Browser</h1>
<ul class="incremental">
	<li class="negative">lynx</li>
	<li class="negative">w3m</li>
	<li>links</li>
</ul>
</div>


<div class="slide">
<h1>Text Editor</h1>
<ul class="incremental">
	<li>vim</li>
	<li>nano</li>
</ul>
<div class="handout">
<ul>
	<li>vim is compiled twice</li>
	<li>vim-share</li>
	<li>vim</li>
	<li>2.5 days each?</li>
</div>
</div>

<div class="slide">
<h1>Languages - Scripting</h1>

<ul class="incremental">
	<li class="negative">Python</li>
	<li class="negative">PHP</li>
	<li>Perl</li>
	<li>Ruby</li>
	<li>Lua</li>
	<li>Bash</li>
</ul>
<div class="handout">
<ul>
	<li>Python: floating point</li>
	<li>PHP: some extensions require ~1GB to build</li>
	<li>Perl: required 1 week to build</li>
	<li>Ruby: disable RDOC - 50K seconds for GEM doc build</li>
	<li>Databases: stick with SQLite</li>
	<li>Bash: required 30hrs to build</li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>

<div class="slide">
<h1>Languages - Compiled</h1>
<ul>
	<li>Architecture-Limited: GCC 5.5</li>
	<li><s>Go</s></li>
	<li><s>Rust</s></li>
</ul>
</div>


<div class="slide">
<h1>Source Control</h1>
<ul>
    <li>git</li>
</ul>
<div class="handout">
<ul>
	<li>Docs in XML - xslt won't work</li>
	<li>Solution: install git docs from amd64</li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>


<!-- ------------------- Part 3 ---------------------- -->

<div class="slide">
<h1>VAX as a Server</h1>
<img src="basic3.png" class="bigpicture" />
</div>



<div class="slide">
<h1>Server Necessities</h1>
<ul>
	<li>File Server</li>
	<li>Web Server</li>
	<li>Remote Shell</li>
</ul>
</div>

<div class="slide">
<h1>File Server</h1>
<ul class="incremental">
	<li>NFS</li>
	<li class="negative">Samba</li>
	<li>FTP</li>
</ul>
<div class="handout">
<ul>
	<li>Disk speed, network speed...</li>
	<li>Samba requires Python</li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>



<div class="slide">
<h1>Web Server</h1>
<ul>
	<li>bozohttpd</li>
	<li>nginx</li>
</ul>
</div>



<div class="slide">
<h1>Web Server</h1>
<ul>
	<li>bozohttpd</li>
	<li>nginx</li>
</ul>
</div>


<div class="slide">
<h1>Web Server - Web Apps</h1>
<ul class="incremental">
	<li class="negative">Django or Flask (Python)</li>
	<li class="negative">Wordpress (PHP)</li>
	<li>Ruby on Rails</li>
</ul>
</div>


<div class="slide">
<h1>Remote Shell</h1>
<ul>
	<li>Login times...</li>
	<li>Processing power...</li>
	<li>Memory limitations...</li>
</ul>
</div>



<!-- ------------------ Conclusion -------------------- -->

<div class="slide">
<h1>Is the VAX Feasible?</h1>
<ul>
	<li>Not for everyone...</li>
	<li>Requires patience...</li>
</ul>
<div class="handout">
<ul>
	<li>Many tools unavailable</li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>


<div class="slide">
<h1>Room for Improvement</h1>
<ul class="incremental">
	<li>Faster crypto</li>
	<li>NetBSD default actions</li>
	<li>Floating point emulation?</li>
</ul>
<div class="handout">
<ul>
	<li>Many VAX issues are related to crypto</li>
	<li>Disable some default cron work</li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>


<div class="slide">
<h1>Does This Matter?</h1>
<ul class="incremental">
	<li>On Exotic Hardware? Yes!</li>
	<li>Everyone Else? Yes!</li>
</ul>
<div class="handout">
<ul>
	<li>Many tools unavailable</li>
	<li>Tool chain deprecations</li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>


<div class="slide">
<h1>Contact</h1>
<img style="float:right; height: 80%; width:30%;" src="basic4.png" />
<ul>
	<li>Email: <strong>jba@sdf.org</strong></li>
	<li>Mastodon: <strong>@jba@mastodon.sdf.org</strong></li>
	<li>Twitter: <strong>@fortranjeff</strong></li>
	<li><a href="http://jeff.rainbow-100.com/">http://jeff.rainbow-100.com/</a></li>
</ul>
<p style="font-size:80%">Illustrations: <em>Introduction to BASIC</em>, Digital Equipment Corporation, AA-0155B-TK</p>
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