Basic PDP-11ish questions

From: Zane H. Healy <healyzh_at_ix.netcom.com>
Date: Tue Jun 9 20:02:57 1998

OK, to aviod confusion the first system in question is a SMS-1000, with a
PDP-11/73 board, 2MW RAM, RL02 Controller (DL), TK50 Controller (MU), Dilog
DQ606 Floppy Controller (DY). The SMS-1000 has an internal Floppy and HD,
which it thinks are a RD51 (DU) and RX50 (DU). The boot ROMs support DU
(DSA, the HD and Floppy), MU (TK50), and MS (TS).

I'm able to boot off of RL02 by entering in the bootstrap from ODT.

I've got RSX-11M and XXDP RL02 packs, and can boot from either. I've
managed to make a bootable XXDP floppy diskette. I can boot the machine
directly off of the XXDP floppy on power up. I can boot the XXDP floppy
from the XXDP RL02 pack, and then boot the XXDP RL02 pack from floppy.
However, if I power up and boot from floppy, I can not boot the XXDP RL02
pack. Is this because the Boot ROMs don't support RL02's?

Does anyone have any instructions for a Dilog DQ606 controller? I gather
that it can be configured to act as several different floppy drives. The
drives that came with it are labeled as being a RX-50 and a RX-33, yet
RSX-11M sees both as RX-02's. I'd like to get these changed back to RX-50
and RX-33.

What does the device name 'MS', device type 'TS' stand for? My guess is a
9-Track tape drive.


I've also got a PDP-11/44 that I'm slowly working on restoring. It's in
two racks, one has a pair of RL02's which have been cleaned up. The other
has the CPU, 2 RX-02's, 2 TU-58's, and a battery backup. In looking at the
CPU, it looks as if it has a LED for the battery backup. Does that battery
need to be in the system? I would just as soon remove them and not have
anything to do with them since they are old lead-acid batteries, and I'm
not very fond of such things (spent 3 1/2 years of my time in the Navy
working on UPS's). Is there any reason that I can't just plug the whole
thing into a power source outside of the rack. I'm asking since for all I
know the battery and powersuppy in the bottom of the rack are some kind of
power conditioning circuit.

Also does anyone have any recommendations on how to go about testing out
the power supplies on the 11/44? I'd just as soon not blow anything up. I
have powered up the RL02's, but that is all so far. I'm waiting to test
the power supplies before I get the remaining boards that I need for the
system.


                                Thanks,
                                     Zane
| Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Adminstrator |
| healyzh_at_ix.netcom.com (primary) | Linux Enthusiast |
| healyzh_at_holonet.net (alternate) | Classic Computer Collector |
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Received on Tue Jun 09 1998 - 20:02:57 BST

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