CD-ROM on RT-11?

From: Tom Leffingwell <tom_at_sba.miami.edu>
Date: Thu Apr 4 19:52:55 2002

On Thu, 4 Apr 2002, Jerome H. Fine wrote:

> Any idea if there was a DEC approved CDROM drive which did NOT
> use a caddy?

All of the DEC CD-ROMs after the RRD42 were caddyless. RRD43's are pretty
cheap, and I've never seen a case where it wouldn't work where an RRD42
would. Its a double speed with a spindle that the CD snaps on to, so you
can operate the drive in any position, including upside down if you want.
RRD45's (quad speed) probably aren't much more...they have the tray style
setup like most PCs. RRD46's were still a little pricey last I looked,
they were 12x speed if I remember correctly.

> Any idea how much an M8190-BB (quad 11/73) might cost? I have a
> couple, but I want to keep them for a few more years. But Tom might
> find this is the least expensive way to go.

I have the same problem of having to get another backplane at that point,
as that would take another half slot. Did any of the PDPs ever have a
console program like the VAX's and alphas do? I guess those machines are
probably pretty expensive. I miss things like "show dev" when working on
the PDP.
Received on Thu Apr 04 2002 - 19:52:55 BST