WTB: Pro380, VAXstation

From: Paul Koning <pkoning_at_equallogic.com>
Date: Thu Apr 15 08:44:22 2004

>>>>> "Torquil" == Torquil MacCorkle, <torquil_at_chemist.com> writes:

 Torquil> Since it seems no one has any PDP-11 stuff, does anyone have
 Torquil> a Pro380? I'd really just like to learn more about the
 Torquil> PDP-11 and this seems like the easiest route.

(By the way, my Pro380 isn't for sale... I missed that part of the
question.)

As for a Pro being the easiest route, I wouldn't say so. The bus
architecture is completely unrelated to that of any other PDP11, and
ugly/messy/baroque/bogus at that. There is NO DMA. The Ethernet card
uses the worst Ethernet chip I know.

Off the shelf software for a Pro is P/OS, a mangled version of RSX. I
believe there's also an RT11 that works on it. At one time DEC
created a Unix for it, then canceled that a week before the product
was supposed to ship, and replaced it by a different unrelated Unix
instead. Typical DEC messed up management...

No other OS runs (stock) on a Pro, though I have modified RSTS to do
that.

If you have a choice, a PDP11/73 would be a far better choice, or
one of the later ones in that small packaging. Or an 11/23, though
those are rather slow.

      paul
Received on Thu Apr 15 2004 - 08:44:22 BST