My Collection

From: Dave McGuire <mcguire_at_neurotica.com>
Date: Sat Apr 14 13:20:57 2001

On April 13, Jerome Fine wrote:
> > I care about it; I like it quite a bit. I have a Micro 11/73
> > running v5.4, and a Kevex X-ray analyzer (an accessory to the electron
> > microscope) that has a pdp11/73 in it that runs RT-11.
>
> Jerome Fine replies:
>
> I sounds like this is now strictly for hobby use.

  Not exactly. I've several monetary offers in-hand for analyses for
when I finish getting it connected to the microscope.

  As far as I can tell Kevex shipped analyzers in this configuration
until just a couple of years ago. Now their newer products are based
around a Windows PeeCee that takes over twice as long to run a spectral
analysis on a sample as their previous [J11 and embedded Z8000] design
did.

> Do you have any non-DEC
> boards? What is the interface between the PDP-11 and the microscope?

  I have tons of them. I assume you mean in the Kevex analyzer. ;) The
analyzer consists of a KDJ11 board, a third-party disk controller
board, a graphics board, and a bunch of parallel I/O ports. It
connects to a custom backplane containing an embedded Z8000 data
cruncher, which in turn connects to a NIM bin which contains the
analog front-end and detector interface and the A/D converter stuff.
The detector attaches to the rear of the microscope chamber in an
accessory port.

> How does RT-11 perform? Are there any enhancements that you could use
> at this point?

  It performs wonderfully. The only thing I'd like better is if it [the
control software] were networkable, but since most of it talks
directly to the graphics board in the qbus backplane, I doubt that'd
be a likely hack candidate. The unit isn't old enough to be able to
get the source out of Kevex for hobbyist use, since it's still a
supported model.

        -Dave McGuire
Received on Sat Apr 14 2001 - 13:20:57 BST