PDP-8/m !!!!

From: healyzh_at_aracnet.com <(healyzh_at_aracnet.com)>
Date: Fri Nov 19 21:50:35 1999

> Well, obviously you have to put boards in adjacent slots if you have to
> connecty them by those h851 top connectors (like the 2 CPU boards, and
> the core memory set), but otherwise stuff can go where you want to put it.

Oh, I thought I could just bend the boards together at the top so I could
clip them together. (It's a joke people, put down the pitchforks and axes!)

> In the 8/e cabinet, it's possible to configure a system with enough free
> slots that you can stick in a card and have enough space to get probes
> onto the IC pins without using an extender card. This can be useful if
> you don't have said extender.

Alas, no 8/e chassis, or extender cards.

> Those manuals are _excellent_. Having the prints is useful as well (the
> maintenance manuals only give partial schematics), but you can do a lot
> with those 3 books.

Well, some of the printsets are available on Highgate at least, and thanks
to getting Virtual PC with my new Mac won't be to painful to view.

In any case this will be a lot different from my experience with my first
VAXen and PDP-11's, since I've actually got documentation. It took me the
better part of a year after getting my first PDP-11 to get any Doc's for it.
In the case of the PDP-8/m, I've had some of these doc's for about a year.
Plus there is a lot of hardware info available online.

> > That would tell me it's a ground cable :^) Unfortunalty neither end is
> > attached to anything, except one wire is attached to ground. One end is a
> > 10-pin Cannon Plug, the other end is a 28-pin connector (flat double row
> > connector 14 pins per half, never can remember the name for these) with one
> > hole plugged to key it.
>
> Doesn't sound like anything I obviously associate with the PDP8 machines.
> Any guesses?

I'm not ready to make any guesses till I can take another look at the
system. I took a quick look though, and there didn't appear to be anything
to plug it into, yet it's got a ground wire securely fastened to the
chassis. Maybe the system contained a interface board that is now missing.

                                Zane
Received on Fri Nov 19 1999 - 21:50:35 GMT