18 Sep
2022
18 Sep
'22
6:30 a.m.
On 9/17/22 13:30, Ethan Dicks via cctalk wrote:
Greetings, all,
While getting ready for VCF Midwest etc, I have been spending a lot of
hobby time in the past year digging out various DEC minicomputer items
and testing/repairing them. To that end, I've been staring at a DSD480
on top of a PDP-8 rack. It's one of the ones with the DSD 26-pin
interface. My question is that since there are several different
devices with that connector, are any of them compatible with each
other?
Specifically, here are the DSD interfaces with a 26-pin connector:
802130 DSD210 PDP-11 Interface (26 pin) (2130)
802131 DSD440 DSD210 PDP-8 Interface (26 pin) (2131)
802132 DSD210 LSI-11 Interface (26 pin) (2132)
804430 DSD440 PDP-11 PDP-11 Interface (26 pin) (4430)
804432 DSD440 LSI-11 LSI-11 Interface (26 pin) (4432)
808830 DSD880 (SA850/SA1004) PDP11 Interface Card (26 pin) (8830)
808832 DSD880 (SA850/SA1004) LSI-11 Interface Card (26 pin) (8832)
808836 DSD880/20/30 (SA850/Q240) LSI-11 Interface Card (26 pin) (8836)
I'm
getting ready to move to KC and my pile of DSD is back there.
I have both PDP8 varieties and PDP11. One complete system from Sellam
which hopefully
contain data, etc. Dual booted for a friend he helped maintain it.
A guy in West Wendove NV had a number of subsystems and
I have all of them. We'll have to make a date to do a prisoner
exchange, and I'll
loan / trade you what I've got, and hopefully come up with working systems.
I've got two of the units with the SA-1000 drives as well.
Will take a bit of sorting, will have it on the list to get some stuff and
visit you later this year, but probably next year.
Glad you're looking into this. I don't think I've got enough
to run much on DEC disk hardware.
I think among a pile of 8/As I got from sellam there are
DSD cards, but it was all unsorted. Hand over money load and drive
with a pile is the state of that lot.
I have makings of 6 or 8 8/A's would like a couple, but DSD again
would be nice.
thanks
Jim
It looks like the 2131 board is Omnibus and works with
either the
DSD440 or DSD210, but on the PDP-11, can the 883x interfaces work with
older drives or do they only work with the DSD880 floppy/hard drive
box?
I remember where/when I got this DSD480, so it seems likely to me that
I have a PDP-11/34 with an 4430 board in it. I could probably use an
2131 board just so I have an Omnibus interface. I also have an 808836
board but do _not_ have a DSD880.
I've found the prints on bitsavers that cover the DSD440/480 interface
so I know what signals are there, but I haven't found the equivalent
docs for the DSS880, just user guides. Anyone here know enough about
DSD products to shed some light?
Thanks,
-ethan