PDP 11/23 advice

From: Bill Pechter <pechter_at_monmouth.com>
Date: Thu Jan 14 07:16:18 1999

> Just found a free PDP 11/23 which I'll be picking up tomorrow, and a VT220.
> I know nothing at all about this machine - are there precautions I should take before shifting it? Drive parking or some such?
> Are there any hard to find extras that I should ask about before collecting it? Thanks for any help the list members may provide. As you can tell, this is quite urgent - about 18 hours before I pickup.
> The guy also has 6 free Sparcstation SLCs - I didn't bags those - maybe I should?!

The PDP11/23 doesn't need disk parking if it's got RD class (PC MFM ST412
type disks) in it. RL01/RL02's can be handled by opening the little right
side hatch, pulling down on the button to release the cover (if you can
power 'em up you can use the normal cover opening latch).
There's a head lock plate and screw that swivels up to lock the
heads in.

The Sparcstation SLC's are kind of slick. The problem is the memory for
them costs more than the SLC. They're 72 pin 33 bit wide... You can
use parity 76pin. The problem is most of them have 16mb in 'em and you
need at least 32-48 mb (I recommend 64) to run Solaris or SunOS.

With 16mb the darn thing swaps itself nuts with X and especially CDE.

I've got an IPX that has 16mb (same memory) and to go to 64mb is 4x$55
per SIMM which is $200+ (more than the IPX cost). If I could find the
memory I'd grab some SLC's... They're basically Sparc2's with mono frame
buffer in a monitor. Just add external SCSI and run. They'd make neat
Xterminals.

If anyone has a source for the memory cheep

Bill
Received on Thu Jan 14 1999 - 07:16:18 GMT