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MPE/iX Factory Tapes Customer Specific?

A

audiocrush

Member
Joined
Jul 21, 2023
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Hi,

I have a general question about how MPE/iX got distributed back in the day.
From what I understand there was no way to get your hands on MPE/iX install media, without buying a HP3000 system.
A few days ago I got a whole shoebox full of DDS tapes in addition to the MPE/iX 6.0 SLT and FOS Tapes I already had.
They're all for MPE/iX 5.0, 6.0, 6.5 and also some 7.5, Diagnostics Tapes, Patches etc.
So understandably, I'd like to archive them all and upload them to Archive.org

BUT
To get those Tapes I had to sign an NDA and also sign a paper that states that I won't disclose any company data that I might have gotten with these tapes.

So here is my question:
Are these tapes in any way maybe customer specific?
Like might there be a customer number, license key, company name or anything on them?
Because for most of the tapes it does not appear to be the case, but some for instance are labeled: HP Support Center "City" on an official HP label and then there is like handwritten on them the Version, and HP-Install Tape MPE/iX 7.5 and then the Customer Name.
Is there maybe an old HP technician here on the forum who can say something about that?
I mean what I can do is, dump one of those tapes once I got a working drive and just do a binary search for various versions of the customer, but I kind of really want to make sure I don't screw up against that NDA...
Oh and also I really don't want them to get screwed by HPE because I uploaded software that they have a contract with HP that says they cannot distribute the software.
Because I think this is not yet old enough to be called abandonware.
Maybe also any lawyers around here? :D

Greetings

audiocrush
 
audiocrush said:
Is there maybe an old HP technician here on the forum who can say something about that?
Click to expand...
There are two discords that I know of that talk about the 3000. cctlk https://discord.gg/NsRqdWRx (zoot or hairyvisionary) or H3000 forever https://discord.com/channels/642419539946110997/802964927421349978/1134304262269177937

The VintageHP mailing list rarely mentions the 3000.

There are too many encumberances with software that HP licensed for MPE/ix that it will ever be made available through non-commercial licensing
We (CHM) tried to make that happen when it went out of support and failed. In the end we couldn't even get classic MPE released like we did with the 1000 and 68K 9000 series.
 
For classic-3000: FOS tapes are generic, SUBSYS tapes are customer-specific and can contain customer identification (and not just on the label, on the tape)
For MPE XL/iX: I duh no (I am a classic-3000 kind of guy) but think there may have been CD-shaped media that were FOS and SUBSYS for 5.0? and later releases; http://3kranger.com/HP3000/mpeix/en-mpe60/30216-90272/30216-90272.pdf section 4 PDF (start page 69 of 467) would appear to explain what you do with the CD (approximately "make a customer system load tape (CSLT)")

As Al says: the POSIX support that inspired the rename of MPE XL to MPE/iX includes software licensed on a royalty basis from third parties (two of 'em that I know of, and while they no longer exist under those names there are acquiring entities around to desire that royalty income).
 
First off, thank you for the suggestions. I will definitely check out the discord at one point. That seems like a good source.

Someone mentioned the HP Museum at one point in another thread and at first I dismissed it because I could not find any download links there in the past.
But they mention they have a quite comprehensive collection of tapes and also CDs, but they don't provide any images of those. I wonder if there might be a reason why they're not doing it.
But apparently you can contact them if you want to install a system....

HP Computer Museum

The museum of HP computers is a collection of HP computing products introduced between 1966 and 1991. The museum contains: calculators, desktop computers, computer systems, tape drives, disc drives, plotters, printers, digitizers and other hardware as well as software, documentation and...
www.hpmuseum.net
They also have excel files that list what they got.

But the CD media is specifically labeled as non-bootable.
I also think at one point the manual of those HP3000 systems stated that a reinstall is only possible from tape.
About that Page 69... yea one might need more experience with MPE/iX to exactly know what a Customized System Load Tape actually means...
Maybe further reading those manuals will enlighten me :D
 
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