Building a PDP-11 for the first time

From: TRASH3_at_splab.cas.neu.edu <(TRASH3_at_splab.cas.neu.edu)>
Date: Mon Dec 22 10:02:12 2003

Oh, how I've missed discussions like this!!!!

I have been involved with RT-11 and PDP/LSI stuff since 1974, and belonged
to the MIT local users group/special interest group until the mid 80's. I
loved (and still do) this stuff. For a while I also ran the VAX 11/780
cluster at Northeastern University when it was first brought in, but I
always liked RT-11.

Currently in the lab at Northeastern I contract with, we have a couple of
microvax II's, and a few LSI-11 systems (all 11/73). I have done some
hacking of the operating system for real-time stuff we needed in the lab,
and also built custom q-bus boards for the lab. So I have a bit of hardware
and software expertise for RT-11/Qbus. I felt lost, in a vacuum of sorts,
when DEC was bought out, the LSI-11 stuff discontinued, and no local user
group to speak of.

I was also one of the voices asking for RT-11 on the VAX architecture, as
we saw the end of the PDP/LSI line coming, and no good replacement. Well,
I never saw it, but at least I can run some of our stuff on a PC with
emulators now.

I have close to 100 boards as spares now, even I think a T-11 SBC, and
as soon as I can start moving the stuff off the LSI-11 systems, I will
be getting rid of them. I already owe two systems to people who have
asked for them, Curt(atari) and jcwren. Now that I have my two radio
towers up and the weather is forcing me to work indoors, I can get back
to what I promised people on the list.

I recall that I took the images from a PLUS board (with the MSCP code)
and burned it into eproms and then stuck them on a MXV-11, so you could
say I didn't always do things kosher, but then again it worked. With
that setup, I could use just two dual boards to make a small system. The
"disk" was the TU-58 on the serial port on the MXV-11.

So you could say I was an addict for this stuff, and I have found a home
among fellow addicts/fruitcakes/junkies!!

My only request is if anyone knows of another list/group I should join
that is more specific to RT-11/LSI-11 stuff, please let me know.

Joe Heck, K1LBG
Received on Mon Dec 22 2003 - 10:02:12 GMT