DEC Pro 350

The Digital Equipment Corporation envisioned the Professional 350 as a high-end competitor to the IBM PC. The machine was very well engineered with a rugged chassis housing easily swapable components as well as a unique single spindle, dual head assembly floppy system. The Pro 350 sported an J-11 chip set and was basically a micro-PDP 11.

The Pro-350 in my collection is fully functional and has a complete set of manuals and a fair amount of software on diskette. This machine runs P/OS, the Professional Operating System although other Operating systems were available including RT-11 and a UNIX variant. The machine has a 10MB hard drive as well as the dual floppy drives and uses a fairly rare color display.

This machine is also unusual in that it comes with the DEC workstation stand. This stand has a rear mounting for the CPU, a keyboard/work surface and a raised monitor platform. The monitor can be raised and lowered using a peddle mounted on the base of the rolling unit.

(Submitted November 11, 2007 09:05:28 by Tom lake)

I have a PRO 350 but the hard drive was wiped and I don't have the original disks to laoad the software. Is there any way I could get disk images from you to allow me to set up the system? I have a set of 21 P/OS disks I got off the Internet but they're not bootable.

(Submitted October 9, 2007 23:26:55 by JMC)

The description on this web page describes the Pro-350 as having the J11 processor chip. It was the Pro-380 that had the J11. The Pro-350 used the earlier F11 chip set. The Pro-380 was a pretty decent RT-11 platform, though taking advantage of the graphics required us to create some special device handlers.

(Submitted July 11, 2007 09:10:41 by Robert Winslow)

I have old laboratory data collected on various DEC computers, all on floppies that were read on DED Pro 350/380 machines. I am looking for a machine that can read the floppies and output the data to some more convenient media. I would be very happy to hear from anyone with an operating machine interested in selling to me.

(Submitted April 16, 2006 17:07:09 by (a href=mailto:trygveth@c2i.net)tti100(/a))

I have 3 Pro350 and one Pro 380 with a lot of archive stuff on them. All working. The 380 and one 350 has upgraded memory done by myself, and both have double RD53's since diskettes are in the other Pro's I also have a Vax Station 2000 with 2 RD54 harddrives and a Tape station. All is ethernet'ed together. That is , one Pro DECNA- K has stoppet working, so this Pro has RS232 into the VAX. I also tried to send doc files from Pro 350 to a PC, via RS232, it worked, but it involved a lot of work fixing the text ! The Vax Station 2000 is linked to PC 10/100Mb Lan network, and a VMS modulator program on PC interfaces the VAX ! One of theese days I will copy all old valueable files from the Pro 380/350's to the extra RD54 on my VAX, and take it from there. I have a lot of documentation, 4- 5 Meters and 3 working PRTIL, 2 Phone systems , original stand, 3 working color monitors, one green, and a lot of sw, including the Decus tapes, among others.

(Submitted February 24, 2006 19:22:43 by (a href=mailto:)Tarik(/a))

I wrote an emulator for this system, based on SIMH:

http://xhomer.isani.org

(Submitted September 25, 2005 05:27:29 by Buck)

My partner aquired a Digital Professional System 425. I dont see it listed. It had a 5mb HD, 1 5 1/4 floppy single sided low density. It was built like a tank. She got it at an auction. I never used it much, just got it started for her. Took waaay too long to boot. She paid very little and it became a converstion piece.

Buck

(Submitted July 18, 2005 06:55:52 by anasana)

I have a full Russian analog of this computer it names: Electronika MC-0585 with OS RT-11 and PROC. I have about 30 5,25 diskettes and manuals (russian lang.). I`m search an emulator of this system and tools to create an images of disks. See all You later!

(Submitted June 9, 2005 10:49:23 by Tom Lake)

I'd bein interested in one of those stands if you still have any for sale!

(Submitted March 10, 2005 15:14:06 by Matt Patoray)

Hi, Mary if you would like to sell me one of the workstation stands i would be interested. Also does anyone have the DEC Daisy whell printer that went with this computer.

Thanks,

Matt

(Submitted January 12, 2005 16:27:09 by mary)

I have several, new in box, DEC workstation stands. Any idea of the current value and how to best sell them?

(Submitted November 22, 2004 23:37:21 by Jesse Bunch)

I have several DEC Pro 350's and monitors. Any idea of the current value and how to best sell them?

(Submitted September 26, 2004 07:44:04 by Fred)

Nice display stand! I have a fair amount of DEC stuff myself, but have never seen the workstation stand setup.. neat!

If you'd like to exchange (images of) diskettes, let me know!

--fred

(Submitted September 5, 2004 15:38:42 by thom)

i just wanted to say that i am working on a Linux distro that does not yet have a title. the emphasis is on a killer GUI, and i was thinking of calling it the Professional Operating System. unfortunately is also stands for POS or Piece Of Sh!t which is not an acronym you want to have. so in my research i'm surprised to come across this page which tells me that there is already a Professional Operating System, which also has the unfortunate P/OS designator!

Description
Manufacturer	Digital Equipment Corporation
Model	Professional 350
Date Announced
Date Canceled
Number Produced
Country of Origin	USA
Price
Current Value	$25-$200

Specifications
Processor	J-11 chipset
Speed	Unknown
RAM	512K-1MB
ROM	Unknown
Storage	2 5.25" floppy drives, 5MB or 10MB hard drive
Expansion	Several expansion slots
Bus	Proprietary
Video	132x25 text, graphics (optional)
I/O	Serial ports
OS Options	P/OS, CP/M-80, RT-11, Venix (an early UNIX variant)

Notes	The DEC Professional 350 was Digital's answer to the IBM PC for a business market (the Dec Rainbow was more geared to the educational and home markets). It was more expensive and less popular which made competing difficult.

Related Items in Collection	Color monitor, lots of original software, several add-on cards including a phone management system, computer stand with adjustable keyboard and monitor trays.
Related Items Wanted	Additional software and OS'