Odd Q-Bus questions 18/22bit

From: Megan <mbg_at_world.std.com>
Date: Tue Aug 18 12:06:36 1998

Jerome Fine replies:

>While using the paddleboard is definitely the most convenient way to
>run a VT103, it is also completely unnecessary. So while I would
>pay a reasonable sum to buy a paddleboard if I was going to use
>a VT103 in a commercial way - or if I was into restoring a VT103,
>I might even build my own paddleboard so as to run the VT103
>in the normal manner, for anyone who just wishes to run a VT103
>and have fun, then the use of a paddle board is not required.

We never said it was... the question was originally whether one
could attach the VT100 to a serial line directly. I responded
"yes" and went on to describe the hardware which was designed to
help do it for you...

>The primary purpose of the paddleboard was to allow the VT100
>portion of the VT103 to be directly connected to the console
>port of a DLV11-J (4 serial port SLU) and for the normal DB25
>connection to be used to attach a serial line printer. Internally,
>one of the other ports on the DLV11-J could then be attached
>to the slowest "disk drive" ever, the TU-58. On one occasion
>back over 10 years ago, a friend was demonstrating how long
>it took to boot RT-11. Well, after 2 minutes, we were about
>to go for coffee when it finally finished.

two minutes? that is slow... I can boot my TU-58 based system
in 30 seconds... (I engineered an optimized TU58 many years
ago when people within Digital were asking how to get it to boot
faster). It involves specific placement of various RT-11
files on one of the four recording tracks. For those who wanted
the system to run faster once booted, you could additionally take
the step of loading stuff into VM and rebooting it it...

>via a cable which then goes to the printer. One notable aspect
>of the paddleboard (if I remember correctly - if necessary either
>Megan or I can check for you if you have the paddleboard) is
>that the baud rate on the DLV11-J is left to float for both
>the console and printer port and the paddleboard sets the
>baud rate for the console port at 9600 baud and the user
>via the SETUP commands is able to set the baud rate for
>the serial line printer port.

That is absolutely correct...

>However, both the 11/23 and the 11/73 CPUs are able
>to use all 4 MBytes of memory with the primary OSs

(depending on the rev of the 11/23... only Rev.C could
do so).

                                        Megan Gentry
                                        Former RT-11 Developer

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| Megan Gentry, EMT/B, PP-ASEL | Internet (work): gentry zk3.dec.com |
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Received on Tue Aug 18 1998 - 12:06:36 BST

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