25 Oct
2025
25 Oct
'25
12:16 p.m.
On Oct 24, 2025, at 6:14 PM, ben via cctalk
<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
On 2025-10-24 2:23 p.m., Cameron Kaiser via cctalk wrote:
That did seem
to speed things up too,as well.
-----
From the PDP-11 FAQ.
Fastest PDP-8
Trivia item: did you note anywhere that the 11/60 was used to implement the world's
fastest PDP-8? The 8 support group for years used an 11/60 RSTS system down the hall,
running custom microcode addons to implement a high speed PDP8 emulator.
I don't know about PDP-8 support. The 11/60 with PDP-8 microcode I know of was used
by the WPS-8 development group when it was in Merrimack, NH, next door to the Typeset-11
group where I started in 1978.
OS level
caching of disk devices is a gennable option in M+ with split I/D.
Oh, *disk*
caching! Sorry, I read that as *processor* cache. That makes sense. Rumour has it that some hacker also did this on a
VAX-11/780, which would definitely out-run the 11/60 version.
I don't know about that rumor, and depending on the micromachine architecture it might
not outrun the 11/60 version.
I wonder if the custom microcode is still around?
I asked its author and was told "unfortunately not".
paul