The subject of this site is microcomputers and although this unit has micro in the title it is actually a minicomputer. Why get hung up on consistency?
This machine is a recent arrival and so far it has not even been powered up. It belonged to a gentleman who developed security software for the VMS operating system although i suspect that this unit was possibly a nostalgic purchase rather than being a machine that was used by him for real work.
Curiously it came with a bunch of tapes and a few high density 5.25″ disks none of which can be read by this machine. This, together with a shipping label that was on the machine dated 2001 is why i think this machine was a nostalgic purchase. Perhaps more will be revealed if it ever boots.
The MicroVAX I was released in 1984 and was quickly superseded by the MicroVAX II which is a more common and more useable model.
The MicroVAX series was a more compact and less capable derivative of the VAX computers that i used as a student of Adelaide Uni in the early eighties, speaking of nostalgia.
The MicroVAX I uses a Q-bus backplane which was also used in some DEC PDP computers. The CPU consists of two Q-bus cards. The MicroVAX I typically shipped with 1MB memory. This one has a dual floppy disk drive and a 30MB hard disk and would therefore have a floppy/hard disk controller.
With the only wired I/O being a serial line for a console terminal this unit is truly standalone. Additional Q-bus cards can be added for many other functions but i imagine they won’t be easy to find.
There are RIFA line filter capacitors inside, so there is work to be done before power can be applied.