Vax hardware drawings (was Re: foo?)

[Chris Torek]

In article <15176 at onfcanim.UUCP> dave at onfcanim.UUCP (Dave Martindale) writes:
>As you look around this drawing [TBM W], you'll see signals with ordinary
>hardware-ese names like EN UNALIGN TRAP H, EN TB PAR L, and WRITE CHECK H.
>But you'll also find AARDVARK L, KINKAJOU L, and WOMBAT L.
>Anyone care to speculate on what they do?

Why speculate?  It is quite obvious.  As you no doubt know, DEC
has included environmental sensors in each of the Vax computers,
such as the usual temperature or air-flow.  What you probably never
heard, though, was that DEC did not stop there.  rsk has been heard
wondering why 780s stop working whenever he is near.  He has, of
course, triggered the wombat sensor.

One wonders whether these special environmental sensors were added
at the request of a large zoo, or whether DEC had its own zoo.
Speculators in Maynard favour the latter opinion.  In any case,
the aardvark sensor has proven its usefulness in the detection of
certain bugs.  The efficacy of the kinkajou sensor remains to be
demonstrated.
-- 
In-Real-Life: Chris Torek, Univ of MD Comp Sci Dept (+1 301 454 7690)
UUCP:	seismo!mimsy!chris	ARPA/CSNet:	chris at mimsy.umd.edu