PDP 11/73 is ALIVE!

From: Ian Primus <ian_primus_at_yahoo.com>
Date: Sun Nov 23 10:46:56 2003

Last week I got the system unit and the tape drive mounted in the rack,
and yesterday, I managed to mount the Fujitsu Eagle. Now I'm trying to
figure out how to hook it all up...

I have been tinkering with it this morning, and finally, about a half
hour ago, I was able to see some activity. I found the information on
the serial board in a handbook, set the terminal for the proper baud
rate, etc, and connected it to channel 3 of the card. Powering it up
gives me the _at_ prompt. So far, the only things in the machine are the
CPU, the serial card, a 1mb memory board, and an Emulex tape
controller. Now that I have gotten it to do something, I'm totally
lost. I've never worked on a machine like this before. I don't even
know how to type in the boot program. I have a tape boot program here,
on a piece of paper, but I don't know how to type in the values. I've
tried all sorts of commands, all of which yield a ?. Typing P seems to
step the processor through something, as it prints 000002, and then
typing P again increments that value. G prints 177777, and the LED on
the tape controller lights briefly. Same thing if I toggle the boot
switch. I tried loading a tape into the drive and putting it online,
but I get no drive activity when I toggle the boot switch.

So, can anyone offer hints or suggestions as to what I should do next?
I'm lost...

Thanks!

Ian Primus
ian_primus_at_yahoo.com
Received on Sun Nov 23 2003 - 10:46:56 GMT