What to look for in a PDP machine?

[rdkeys@unity.ncsu.edu (rdkeys@unity.ncsu.edu)]

Interesting, there may be a PDPsomethingorother machine come available in
surplus here.  A quick glance at it showed it to be in a 1/2 height rack,
with some custom name that meant nothing to me.  But, it had two rack
cabinets about 6 inches high each, with definite looking DEC cards,
4 wide cards, with an interconnecting cable between the two cases.
The thing had a half gig scsi drive and scsi tape (60 or 150mb).
Alas, I was able only to make a quick glance at it, before I had to
leave.  What might such a critter actually be?  It had half a dozen
RS232 terminal lines out the back, and a wyse terminal sitting on top
of the case.  It is not the kind of thing the PeeCee mongers are going
to dive into, so it might go for a song if I wait a couple of weeks.
It was not DEC badged, but definitely had what I would interpret as
DEC boards inside.

Bob