--- brian roth <brian.roth_at_firstniagarabank.com> wrote:
> Ethan,
>
> Its one of my favorites. Still looking for the RC25 to fill the hole
> though.
I only ever had my hands on the one in my old VAX. They were available
standalone, but pricey.
> The console tape drives need to be repaired so it no longer boots.
What's the problem? Rollers turn to goo? Electronic failure?
> I remember hearing that someone either tried, or successfully used a PC with
> a term program to send over the bootstrap loader.
There is out there a TU-58 emulator for PeeCee. I've seen it and I've always
wanted to put one together, perhaps with a floppy drive so it would be possible
to still swap media, after a fashion. With the things I've been playing with
in the modern hardware arena, I've also contemplated taking the emulator and
sticking a modern CPU in one of these encyclopedia-sized cases I have and
adding a text LCD display on the front and a couple of buttons (though the
joystick port) and building up a virtual tape library. The ultimate
incarnation would be able to hang a _real_ TU-58 off of it and be able to read
and write _real_ tapes as well as act as a cache/jukebox. In that form, it
would make a nice standalone backup device for DECtapeII.
Got a drive I can borrow in a VT103, got hardware, got the RSP spec (Radial
Serial Protocol), got tapes. Don't got time. :-( It's been on my fantasy
project list for ten years and has managed to only move _down_ the priority
list since then. Maybe when I dig that 11/730 out of the storage locker...
-ethan
=====
Even though my old e-mail address is no longer going to
vanish, please note my new public address: erd_at_iname.com
The original webpage address is still going away. The
permanent home is:
http://penguincentral.com/
See
http://ohio.voyager.net/ for details.
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Received on Thu Mar 22 2001 - 16:56:55 GMT