Electrician came; PDP-11 works!

From: Zeus334 <Zeus334_at_aol.com>
Date: Mon Dec 29 19:35:25 1997

It seems the PDP-11 is the favorite machine on this group... I have never seen
one, so could someone tell me a few things.
a)Year
b)original price for average package
c)does it have an OS? What is it like?
d)what can the thing do?

In a message dated 97-12-29 20:03:49 EST, you write:

<< Well, the electrician came today to upgrade my service to 200A, and laughed
 when I told him that the thing that prompted me was that I got this "large,
 old computer." He couldn't believe that a "residential" computer draws 30A
 startup and 15A running. The sound of it amazes me, too.
 
 Anyway, I hooked a terminal up to it and lo-and-behold, a prompt. Now, I've
 never owned a PDP-11, so be gentile, here. How do I get it to run a command
 shell? I have installed two RK05 drives, the 0: drive has a {supposedly
 good} RT-11. Upon boot, I get the following on the terminal:
 
         000000 170002 170002 165360
     $
 
     I'm assuming that the "$" prompt is the monitor prompt. It seems to only
 accept two-letter commands before performing an auto-carriage-return. The
 "165360" is also on the front panel display.
 
     Any clues would be appreciated. I'd like to get this thing running by
 the time I get back to work on 1/5. Happy New Year to all!
 
 
 Rich Cini/WUGNET
     <nospam_rcini_at_msn.com> (remove nospam_ to use)
     ClubWin! Charter Member (6)
     MCP Windows 95/Windows Networking
 ============================================ >>
Received on Mon Dec 29 1997 - 19:35:25 GMT