<i>It was just a few years later that a 16Mhz i386 was as fast as this system.</i><p>Wouldn&#x27;t that be more like 8 years later?  1986 for the 12MHz release (originally targeted at 16), add at least a year to get up in speed and out in people&#x27;s hands.  And didn&#x27;t the VAX have a much faster disk system, and few i386&#x27;s tape backup?<p>BTW, how reliable were your RM80s?