Chassis Cubix ERS-Fault Tolerant II - an overseas miracle in the networks of Ukraine

There was (yes, in general, there is now) a wonderful company Cubix, which was known for its wonderful server chassis, an overview of one of which I offer readers Giktayms. The author’s photos are used in the publication, and these photos are large, there are many of them. Although, everything in this world is relative.

In general, I ask for cat.

This review article was prompted by me to write several facts, namely: the lack of information on these systems on the Runet and, in fact, the acquisition of it by me.

Actually, for starters - photos of the monitored:


I want to especially draw your attention to the last photo. Young people will not understand, but we remember ...

Now a little about the characteristics of this wonderful (emphasis put to your liking) instance of high technologies once upon a time:


So, in essence - this is a chassis that allows you to combine up to 8 almost independent computers. Why almost?

Because they still have power in common - two power supplies of 375 W each and a KVM switch that switches the console between them, and also allows you to turn on, turn off and restart any of the computers installed in the chassis.


The basis of the chassis is a backplane with 16 ISA-slots, grouped in two, in which, in fact, up to 8 PCs and peripherals are installed. However, the configuration can be changed, since between each pair of slots there is a technical slot for a shunt, by setting which, we will combine the two groups into one and get 4 connected slots. Unfortunately, I do not have shunts, as well as their circuits, or at least a photo. I suspect that there is just a set of jumpers, but have not experimented yet.


Also on the chassis there is a common compartment for the HDD, equipped with separate trays for them and a pair of aircraft turbines of solid fans of fair noise. There is located FDD, which, together with the console, switches between PCs.


Actually, let's move on to the fact without which all this beauty overseas will remain just a beautiful and not very convenient box, namely, to the PC modules themselves.

I got a chassis equipped with 5 identical computers of the BC5166 model, which carries P166MMX, VGA S3 Trio64V2 / DX, IDE, COM, LPT and two 72-pin 36-bit SIMM modules on board. The maximum supported memory capacity is 256 MB, the slats are set in pairs and of the same size. On my 4 PCs there are 2x32 Mb, the 5th one is completely without memory yet. There is also a 100 Mbps network on board. Yes, I almost forgot, all this is assembled on the chipset from Intel.
Suddenly.


Also, on board this PC SCSI can be soldered, but I do not have it on any. To my great regret.


And a long comb under the chipset is a PCI bus, to which PCI devices can be connected via a daughter board. However, no mention of this board, except for the mention in the description, as well as the photo, could not be found. And this is still great sadness.

This copy of overseas computer engineering has already been in the hands of our craftsmen, which has its pros and cons: the plus is that the native console connector, marked as Video OUT on the rear panel, has its own pinout, which I have not yet found. However, as can be seen in the photo, our craftsmen bred VGA and two PS / 2 on a makeshift pigtail, which saved me from serious excavations.



And the minus is that initially all the processors on the boards had passive cooling, but ... The Slav will always find something to improve, and the native radiators were replaced with what is in the photo. Our way.


As you can see, our method no longer works, due to old age, and the cooler is completely jammed from dust, and therefore the brackets are thrown out, the coolers are cleaned, greased, screwed onto the radiator, and the radiators are put into place even more in our way - a drop of thermal paste in the center, and a couple of drops of super-glue in the corners.

Actually, I’ll probably stop at this for a while (for an indefinite period), due to the fact that the device starts, but it’s uninteresting to scare honest people with photos of AMI BIOS and it’s not capable of more. BUT! He will certainly live as soon as I understaff him. And it is about his future life that will be continued.

See you again.

PS If someone has documentation, additional information, and generally something related to this system - please let me know.