microcoding a PC into a PDP-11 (was: RE: Classic Computers vs. Classic Computing)

From: Jonathan Engdahl <engdahl_at_cle.ab.com>
Date: Tue Sep 18 14:34:19 2001

> -----Original Message-----
> [mailto:owner-classiccmp_at_classiccmp.org]On Behalf Of Chuck McManis
> Sent: Tuesday, September 18, 2001 12:54 PM
>
> Actually a more compelling idea for me would be to reverse engineer the
> processor on a modern disk drive (like a SCSI drive) and then
> reprogram the
> disk controller boards firmware such that the disk thought it was
> a PDP-11.
>
> --Chuck

Cute idea.

Aren't the newer IDE drives bus masters? The CPU on the drive could request
the bus, kick the Pentium off and put it to sleep permanently, and *be* the
PDP-11.

You could also build an adapter that allows the IDE drive to slide into the
first slot on a Qbus backplane and be the CPU.

Possible?



--
Jonathan Engdahl???????????????? Rockwell Automation
Principal Research Engineer????? 24800 Tungsten Road
Advanced Technology????????????? Euclid, OH 44117, USA
Euclid Labs????????????????????? engdahl_at_cle.ab.com 216-266-6409
Received on Tue Sep 18 2001 - 14:34:19 BST

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