microcoding a PC into a PDP-11 (was: RE: Classic Computers

From: Eric Dittman <dittman_at_dittman.net>
Date: Tue Sep 18 13:20:27 2001

> >Very good point. I was thinking that it would be nice to have a machine that
> >was a PDP-11 as soon as you flipped on the power, but probably not worth the
> >cost and hassle of the flash. Didn't some of the VAXen boot their microcode
> >from a floppy?
>
> Yes, the VAX 11/780 does.

I remember an early brochure for the 11/750 talking about how it would be
easy to load custom microcode to emulator other processors. This wasn't
in later brochures or product descriptions for the 11/750 that I've seen.

> Interestingly, the DEC DSSI drives are nearly already "there" when it comes
> to this sort of scenario. There already is a communications protocol that
> lets you "log in" to the drive and talk to a variety of programs that are
> stored in the Disk drives flash. It may actually have a real PDP-11 on it,
> I don't know who might know what all the parts are on a DSSI drive.

I don't think the DSSI drives have a PDP-11, but they are pseudo-CI.
-- 
Eric Dittman
dittman_at_dittman.net
Check out the DEC Ethusiasts Club at http://www.dittman.net/
Received on Tue Sep 18 2001 - 13:20:27 BST

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