> > Sometimes the machine is too difficult for the current level of tech
> > to repair -- say PDP 11/70's now...8-(
>
> Say PDP-8e now, most would be terrified by the likes of a SMP KL10
> cluster.
>
> allison
Ugh...
I've seen a Tri-SMP 10 at Johnson and Johnson around '85.
I never was a KL guy, but I worked on the TU45's for them.
Actually, 11/70's were tough to troubleshoot when the problem was
in the Cache-Massbus-Memory interconnect.
The 11/70 diags were pretty good.
I think DEC did some of the best diags in the industry.
I was amazed that the Perkin Elmer, Concurrent stuff didn't
get much smarter than XXDP v1 on tape. No ease of use
nothing like DEC/X11. The DEC Diag Supervisor was copied
by Masscomp, Alliant and probably others looking for improved
diags.
DEC's customer runnable MicroVax stuff was fairly lame though.
IBM's stuff on the RS6000 was pretty good. Sun's Sparc stuff
was OK -- assuming you could get Unix up to run it.
Anyone else here find diagnostic tool design and interface an
interesting topic.
The rest was good old 11 series stuff.
A Unibus was a Unibus (more or less) until the 11/780 Unibus adapter
got involved.
Actually, my worst nightmare was a Straight PDP-8 where the prints
didn't match the ECO's and the parts weren't available.
It was in service through the late '80's (86+) at Ft. Monmouth, NJ.
And I wasn't 8 trained at all.
Either that, or the 11/782 who's software (DSC, Backup) didn't work under
VMS correctly and memory had to be moved to the primary processor
from the attached CPU to back it up before I could fix it.
(This later became two 11/785's -- a much better thing)
Bill
---
bpechter_at_shell.monmouth.com|pechter_at_pechter.dyndns.org
Three things never anger: First, the one who runs your DEC,
The one who does Field Service and the one who signs your check.
Received on Thu Apr 08 1999 - 09:07:47 BST