Chrislin Industries

From: CLASSICCMP_at_trailing-edge.com <(CLASSICCMP_at_trailing-edge.com)>
Date: Sat Apr 24 19:53:37 1999

>I've got disk box, 19" rack mount, that is labelled Chrislin Industries.
>Inside is an SA612 hard disk labelled DL0: on the front, and two 8"
>floppies (NEC floppies) labelled DY0: and DY1: on the left. (horizontal
>mount). Inside the box is a PC board that takes a 50pin connector (labelled
>"Controller") and has connectors labelled WINC0, WINC1, 5" FLOPPY, 8"
>FLOPPY, and WINCHESTER.

This is a box that works with a Chrislin Industries Q-bus controller.

>This is the zillion dollar question, it looks as if this box could be
>plugged into an RQDX3 and emulate two RX02 and an RLxx.

Nope.

> Or, it could plug
>into some CI controller that did its own emulation.

Yep, the Chrislin controller does RX02 emulation and RL02 emulation. Most
also had a small bipolar boot ROM on it.

>My "Microcomputers and Memory" handbooks lists on the back the following
>boards for an 11/23 in a BA11-N
>#0 KDF11-AA
>#1 MSV11-DD
>#2 MSV11-DD
>#3 DLV11-J
>#4 spare
>#5 spare
>#6 spare
>#7 spare
>#8 BDV11-AA
>
>My question is if I stuck the RQDX3 in slot 4 would it work?

The RQDX3 will work, but it won't talk to your Chrislin industries box.
There's a 50-pin to 34-and-20-pin breakout board you need to hook floppy
drives and MFM drives to a RQDX3. In a BA23, the breakout board resided
in between the card cage and the drive bays; in a BA123 there was a breakout
board, with a Q-bus form factor, that plugged into the "dummy" Q-bus slots
at the front of the backplane; in a BA11N-type box, the breakout usually
resided in the Leprechaun box that holds the MFM or floppy drive.

> If I found a
>copy of RSX-11M could I boot it on this system (128KB of memory)

Sure. You need the drive, of course... and installing RSX from floppy
is just plain cruel (about as convenient as the Wagner Ring Cycle on 45's...)

> how about
>RT-11?

Sure, again you need media and matching drive....

> Do I need the BDV11 if I have the RQDX3 ?

No. The official rules for when you need a terminator in a box and
when you don't need one are in Micronote #29, "Q-bus Expansion Concepts",
available from

http://metalab.unc.edu/pub/academic/computer-science/history/pdp-11/micronotes

Keep in mind that you won't have a MSCP bootstrap in this system, meaning
you'll have to use console ODT to put the MSCP bootstrap in for each
cold boot you do.

-- 
 Tim Shoppa                        Email: shoppa_at_trailing-edge.com
 Trailing Edge Technology          WWW:   http://www.trailing-edge.com/
 7328 Bradley Blvd		   Voice: 301-767-5917
 Bethesda, MD, USA 20817           Fax:   301-767-5927
Received on Sat Apr 24 1999 - 19:53:37 BST

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