IBM RS/6000 43P Model 150 (7043-150)
System Type: 7043-150
Advisory: confusingly, the RS/6000 7043 is one of the few unique 'system types' that features dissimilar hardware! Normally an IBM system type indicates that the motherboard/firmware and other main components remain similar, but not so with the RS/6000 7043 43P and its various (incompatible) models between one another.
To add to the confusion, the Model 240 and 140 look identical externally, but internally they are not. Even more confusingly, the Models 140 and 150 sometimes shared documentation together, but then IBM merged it all with the Model 240 (which is why a lot of PDFs have the Model 140, 150 and 240 together). The Model 150 is quite far removed from the 140 and 240.
The Model 150 is probably the most common RS/6000 ever made since it hit the ratio of low cost, performance and flexibility with running a decent amount of AIX versions (very well suited for AIX 4.3 and 5.3). It's also smaller than some of the larger towers making it more desk friendly than a noisy huge tower. It was also manufactured for over 5 years giving it a long production run for saturating businesses, and it shows with the last firmware update being released in 2009.
Downloads
--> System Firmware TCP09267 (09/2009)
Note: Firmware package contains both DOS (.exe) and AIX (.bin) packages
--> IBM RS/6000 7043 Model 150 Setup Instructions
--> IBM RS/6000 7043 Model 150 Service Guide
--> IBM RS/6000 7043 Model 150 User's Guide
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--> RS/6000 Systems Handbook 2000 Edition
--> UNIX Workstations Facts and Features (2003)
--> System i & p PCI adapters (44 MB!)
--> System i & p fans
--> IBM IntelliStation POWER and IBM RS/6000 Graphics Performance Report
--> RS/6000 SpaceBall Announcement on AIX
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--> 3Dconnexion Xdriver AIX 5+ (4.66 11/18/2005)
--> 3Dconnexion Xdriver AIX 4 (4.64 03/04/2005)
--> Open Sound System for AIX (OSS/AIX v3.9.8g)
Note: you must purchase a license from 4Front Technologies to activate OSS/AIX (while it's released as open source the old UNIX versions are not).
OS Support
AIX
AIX 7.2 Not SupportedAIX 7.1 Not Supported
AIX 6.1 Not Supported
AIX 5.3 Supported (requires at least firmware TCP04195)
AIX 5.2 Supported
AIX 5.1 Supported
AIX 4.3.3 Supported
AIX 4.2.1 Supported
AIX 4.1.5 Not Supported
AIX 3.2.5 Not Supported