8 Jan
2023
8 Jan
'23
9:25 p.m.
On Sun, Jan 8, 2023 at 1:50 PM Chris Zach via cctalk
<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
That will be complex. I had an RK8 disk controller
(the 6 foot cabinet
that was it) along with a pair of the RK03 disk drives and it was (a)
insane, (b) heavy beyond belief, and (c) finicky.
I think I've only ever seen pictures. I know I haven't seen one up close.
It also required Data break which is not built into
the stock pdp8/L.
That's just a few common modules, fortunately.
You would need a BM08 box, and as I'm looking for
one myself they will
be tough to get :-)
Absolutely. Not a lot of benefit having storage without memory extension.
You might be better off getting your 8/L working and
trying things like
FOCAL on paper tape and other simple paper tape/serial based stuff.
Running OS/8 will require either a pdp8/I (with the extra memory, data
break, and helpful things like the EAE) or as I mentioned a BM08.
FOCAL is absolutely a good starting point for making a 4K PDP-8/L do
_something_ interesting. I haven't ever tried doing assembly using
the paper tape tools (it's several passes and uses quite a bit of
tape) but I have assembled small programs by hand and toggled them
directly into the front panel. Obviously that's no fun for anything
over a few dozen instructions.
-ethan