building a PDP11 from the things you find at home

From: Zane H. Healy <healyzh_at_aracnet.com>
Date: Thu Jul 26 19:42:47 2001

>
> On Thu, 26 Jul 2001, Jerome Fine wrote:
> > Jerome Fine replies:
> >
> > While I probably don't really understand someone who's goal is using the
> > original hardware, on the other hand, I find that any software development
>
> Hmmmm, this IS the classiccmp list isn't it?
>
> > under an emulator is much more straight forward, much easier AND MUCH
> > FASTER.
>
> ...and emulators are very, very, boring; and, if run under M$-Windoze,
> much less reliable and more likely to crash or lose data. The sound
> of fans, the chatter and kerchunking of disk drives, the clicking
> contactors when mains power is applied, the vacuum and whirring sounds
> of a mag tape drive starting up, the blinking of lights, etc. are all
> parts of the experience of using vintage computer systems.
>
> Aye Jerome, surely you don't want to be thought of as an
> anti-classic-computer emulator loving weenie, do you? ;-) After all,
> can it not be said that emulators are, for the most part, preferred by
> weenies who can't lift a PDP-11/44 PSU and are afraid of being shocked
> by one, who can't pop a tall cabinet into the back of a real, not one
> of those little foreign match-box size, station station wagons to haul
> it home, who don't know a screwdriver from an SMD drive cable, or who
> can't even figure out how to disassemble and reassemble a couple of
> linked paperclips?

You know, while Jerome and I each have our preferences, I've got to admit
that for him, emulation makes a lot more sense. Shoot, I'll even admit that
at this point, PDP-11 emulation would almost make more sense for myself. Of
course neither of my main PDP-11's are exactly normal. My /73 has SCSI
tape, CD-ROM and removable 3.5" 1/3 Hieght SCSI Hard Drives, as a result, in
spite of being in a BA123, it's quieter than some of my modern hardware. My
/44 might have RL02's, but it's primary disks are SCSI. As a result I've
got capabilities on my PDP-11's that aren't really available on the
emulators available to hobbyists. As for everything you say above on disk
drives, I personally wouldn't even consider using any Hard Drives larger
than 5 1/4", and I try to stick with 3 1/2". Why? Electricity costs,
noise, heat, AND the amount of physical space that they take up.

Emulators aren't boring, unless all you're interested in is the hardware.
Personally I like them. They let you run software you wouldn't otherwise be
able to run. The perfect examples are ts10, simh, and hercules. The first
two will allow you to run PDP-10 software, and the last allows you to run
IBM 360, 370, etc. software. Granted there are a few PDP-10's in Hobbyist
hands (though I'm not sure any are fully operational), but I'm not aware of
any hobbyist having a fully operational IBM Mainframe. Thanks to simh, I've
got a emulated KS10 sitting on the net running TOPS-10 7.03. That makes me
pretty happy with emulation. Oh, and as for stability, I had TOPS-10
running for nearly 40 days straight at one point, it stopped running because
*OpenBSD* crashed! That's the second time that OpenBSD has crashed on me in
nearly 3 years on that system.

                        Zane
Received on Thu Jul 26 2001 - 19:42:47 BST