On Sat, 20 Mar 1999 12:05:30 -0500, Steve Robertson <steverob(a)hotoffice.com>
wrote:
>>The tenative price of $500 seems awfully high to me. After all, it's not
>>like there is a lot of R&D involved, the components aren't exactly
>>cutting-edge, and to some extent the markets are already established.
I don't recall Fischer's Web site quoting a price. I applied the price
of $500 to a currently-mythical 25th Anniversary Edition kit which was my
$0.02.
I don't know if $500 is the right number either, but I figure that in a
"new" IMSAI 8080 kit in low quantities, there'd be at least $75 in boards,
$100++ for the case, $50 for the power supply, $25 for a silkscreened front
panel and the rest, silicon, passives, switches, and the backplane
connectors. And that doesn't iinclude any re-engineering costs to account
for parts that have been discontinued or marked as "end-of-life."
Given what happens when the old IMSAIs hit ePay, I'd pay $500 for a new
kit that I could build myself. I don't know if I'd want a Pentium-class
IMSAI with a front panel for $1200. I guess it would depend on how
faithfully it reproduced/simulated the operation of the original. I also
don't know if another bus standard is necessary, too.
Personally, I'd prefer a kit, and I think that $500-600 is not
unreasonable. I'm sure that if you open this up to the hobbyest community,
you'd find enough takers to make a 500-unit quantity production run
feasable.
[ Rich Cini/WUGNET
[ ClubWin!/CW7
[ MCP Windows 95/Windows Networking
[ Collector of "classic" computers
[ http://highgate.comm.sfu.ca/~rcini/classiccmp/
[ http://highgate.comm.sfu.ca/~rcini/pdp11/
<---------------------------- reply separator
Joe:
Yes, I could use this; I won't be getting a CS-80 document any time soon.
WOrk continues on the disassembly. I'll be getting a new interface pod
for my logic analyzer in a couple of weeks, so I'll be able to take a
look
around 'inside'.
Thanks.
Jeff
On Mon, 22 Mar 1999 20:50:09 Joe <rigdonj(a)intellistar.net> writes:
>Jeff,
>
> I finally found my copy of the docs for the HP Amigo command set. Do
>you
>still need a copy?
>
>
> Joe
>
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> RT11 docs I have complete.. I can look up the 'logical disk'
>stuff there.
But if you are doing this on a RSTS machine, there is no concept
of logical disks in the V3B RTS... Logical disks weren't added
until much later in RT's life... (V5.?)
> I think I've not just bitten off more than I can chew.. actually I
>think the Sandwich itself is bigger than I am.... ;}
Naw... if you get RT running, it should be fine... there was an
early logical disk handler submitted to decus some years before
we incorporated something similar in the base system.
What version of RT-11 do you have to use?
Megan Gentry
Former RT-11 Developer
+--------------------------------+-------------------------------------+
| Megan Gentry, EMT/B, PP-ASEL | Internet (work): gentry!zk3.dec.com |
| Unix Support Engineering Group | (home): mbg!world.std.com |
| Compaq Computer Corporation | addresses need '@' in place of '!' |
| 110 Spitbrook Rd. ZK03-2/T43 | URL: http://world.std.com/~mbg/ |
| Nashua, NH 03062 | "pdp-11 programmer - some assembler |
| (603) 884 1055 | required." - mbg |
+--------------------------------+-------------------------------------+
<Ok, now the "panel" if you can call it that on the PDP-11/03 BA11-N has
<three switches as well (restart (momentary), Halt, and Aux). I assume that
<these are connected in some way to the BDV11 internally? tracking the
<ribbon cable isn't easy on this chassis.
No. they both interact at the bus level so that ribbon from the FP goes to
the PS or backplane depending on BA11 model.
So you can disable the LTC using either switch (watchout for that too.)
and reset/restart using either.
If you have all three cpus go with the m8186 (11/23A) as it has memory
management and is faster. If the Backplane is Q22 or modified to be Q22
and the BDV11 is also modded then 4mb of ram is possible otherwise your
limited to 256k (for most PDP-11 stuff that is plenty!).
Allison
<Zane's earlier comment is right on. I have a 380, and it's a semi-alternat
<to an 11/23 or 11/73. Although it uses the same chip as the 11/73, its bu
<(CTI=Computing Terminal Interconnect) is pretty slow; I think it's an 8-bi
<bus that multiplexes everything.
Not correct. CTI is very nearly qbus with some simplifications. It is
however 16bit.
What slows them is the terminal emulation running concurrently and also the
disk controllers for both the floppy and the hard disk are SLOW.
Still for single user stuff they are ok. For multiuser version of Venix or
Unix the serial port and a termianl is far faster!
Allison
<Of what use is a DEC Pro-350?
It's a PDP-11. It runs a verion of unix called Venix, also RT-11 and POS.
The base CPU is the F11 (11/23) chipset and it's fairly fast save for the
disks are slow.
<I remember someone asking about ethernet as well. This unit has an etherne
<connector on the back.
Does it have the board though?
Allison
I just noticed in the TOR.FORSALE.COMPUTERS newsgroup an advert for a Data
General NOVA 2 "with core memory in a DG rack" call 519-744-2900. I know
nothing about this at all other than it looked like something that someone
somewhere might somehow be intersted.
If its really cool and you get it for virtually nothing, don't tell me.
I'm doing everything in my power to ignore it. Painful as ignoring my
curiosity may be.
Colan
< 000401 Disk controller
< 000034 ram
< 000034 ram
That was a memory test...
<Does Venix use the serial port for the console?
No, It used the internal video console and Keyboard. Find a LK201/301/401
keyboard, the cable and a VR201(monochrome) or the Color tube (VR262?) as
and of the PRO OSs will expect to use it. Though some OSs can be configured
to use the serial port for a terminal (after install).
It's a really nice little system and a VR201 is not that large.
Allison
Found this in the many boxes of apple // goodies i have. Plugged it into my
//e and with a PR#7, got a menu and managed to experiment around and messed up
an old ami bios keyboard eprom pretty good just for fun. I know it's menu-
driven, but anyone have instructions on how to use it. I noticed the status
LEDs blinking as it did various things. This thing could come in handy for who
knows what...
david
This was posted in comp.sys.dec... contact the person in the post,
not me...
- - - - -
I have a MicroVAX II (BA23 cabinet?) to give away in SE Minneapolis.
It has 5MB of memory, 150MB disk and TK50 tape drive. MicroVMS 4.5 is installed.
Unusual boards include Analogic AP500 array processor controller, unfortunately
without the AP500 itself. If anybody is interested and can pick it up
locally, please let me know.
- Marek
--
| Marek Behr | (612) 626-8067 | behr(a)arc.umn.edu |
| University of Minnesota | -fax- 626-1596 | http://www.arc.umn.edu/~behr |
