On Sep 17, 23:33, Mike Kenzie wrote:
> On another list someone mentioned that a PDP11 ran at about the same
> speed as a 486-66.
>
> I don't have a 486-66 but do have a PDP11/34 in the garage so I
> suggested that if a 486-66 could be found we could have a race.
I don't think an 11/34 or similar would come anywhere close to a 486DX2-66
in terms of processor speed. More like a slow 286. The real advantage of
a mini was the architecture, which was designed to reap the benefit of
multiple intelligent DMA subsystems and perhaps multiple busses. The same
is true now, comparing expensive SGI kit with fast Pentiums -- you only see
the advantage on specific tasks, like certain kinds of rendering.
> Any suggestions for a fair race?
Something that reflects the sort of use a mini would be put to; something
with multiuple users or at least multiple processes, and a healthy mix of
I/O. A Dhrystone test is definitely not what I'm thinking of :-)
--
Pete Peter Turnbull
Network Manager
University of York
What's the rev of the manual? I might need it depending on the rev.
_________________________________________________________________
Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp
> Can you let us have some more info?
It's one of the biggest Amateur Radio events of the year (and, as such, has
quite a high computer-related content)
Two days (Friday and Saturday*) at the
Donnington International Exhibition Centre
Donnington Park
Castle Donnington
(near junctions 23A/24/24A of M1)
0930-1730 (1700 Saturday)
lots of trade stands/flea market/bring and buy
admission ?3 parking free - free bus from airport (and cheap bus from
railway station Loughborough or Derby to airport)
see www.lars.org.uk
* but I think there is a big Touring Car race on the Saturday at the
adjacent racetrack so getting there/back on Saturday may be less than
pleasant.
Andy
Can anyone help Dianne out with some computer wisdom? See message below,
and please remember to CC your message to <dfmedic(a)msn.com>.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 7 Sep 2001 06:32:53 -0700
From: dfmedic <dfmedic(a)msn.com>
To: vcf(a)vintage.org
Subject: Assistance Please
Hi,
I have been researching for information on comparing and contrasting
mainframes and personal computers, but have not been able to locate any
specific information. This information is required for a paper I have to
present at the university I am attending. Could you send me some
information on this or direct me to the appropriate resource?
Thank you for your time and assistance.
Sincerely,
Dianne Fisher
--
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org
On September 18, Eric Dittman wrote:
> Okay, you've got a 35 VUP system (VAX 7610), a 32 VUP system (VAX 6610),
> and a 6 VUP system (VAX 8700). However, it looks like you are missing
> the power controllers.
The power controller for the 8700 is still down here in storage. It
is stored at another location separate from the 8700 and we couldn't
pick it up while Sridhar and Brian were here.
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire
Laurel, MD
> Does anyone on this thread even understand microprogramming?
>
> Apparently not.
>
> Pentium CPU's can't be microprogrammed, unless your Intel. Even microcode
> updates cannot replace the basic instruction set.
>
> If you write a program in Pentium assembly code to run PDP-11 instructions, you
> have just written an 'emulator', even if it does not run under windows.
>
> But an writing such an emulator is not 'microprogramming'.
I was wondering about this! In all honesty I don't see any reason to go
this low level, by doing this you're making it less portable. Ideally you
want something like a stripped Linux or QNX system sitting on top of the
hardware, with the system emulator sitting on top of that. If you want to
avoid UNIX altogether, just take simh, and set it up so that it's started
when the system boots, and you boot all the way up to the OS of your choice.
Go one step further and hack simh so that if you shutdown the OS running on
top of simh, that it shuts down the host OS.
If you want to do hardware, go with FPGA's and reimplement the CPU and
controllers like Neil Franklin is trying to do with the PDP-10. The tricky
part here of course being the disk and tape controllers (unless you want
to write your own device drivers).
Zane
> Brian Hechinger and I just got a few HSC95s. They've got J11s in
> them.
Do they have the STI bus, UNIBUS, or QBUS? Can they run standard RT-11?
--
Eric Dittman
dittman(a)dittman.net
Check out the DEC Ethusiasts Club at http://www.dittman.net/
On September 18, Eric Dittman wrote:
> > Brian Hechinger and I just got a few HSC95s. They've got J11s in
> > them.
>
> Do they have the STI bus, UNIBUS, or QBUS? Can they run standard RT-11?
They look to contain HSC-specific cards. They sorta resemble
VAX-11/750 cards in size and card-edge connectors.
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire
Laurel, MD
On September 18, Bill Pechter wrote:
> > DEC used embedded PDP-11 processors in many different places. There's
> > the console for some of the VAX systems, and I've read some of the
> > DECsystem-10 or DECSYSTEM-20 systems used a PDP-11 as a console system.
> > Other uses of the PDP-11 that I know of are the HSCxx controllers and
> > some of the printers. Where else did the PDP-11 get embedded? I know
> > the HSZxx/HSDxx/HSJxx controllers used an Intel i960 processor, so
> > there's no PDP-11 there.
> >
> > And speaking of the HSCxx controllers, are the PDP-11 controllers
> > customized or is there a standard QBUS or UNIBUS system in there?
>
> My last DEC Field Service experience was with HSC-50's.
> They had their own bus (no name known by field service).
> I thought they went from F11 CPUs to J11 CPUs in the later ones (HSC70).
>
> I wondered if they ever used 78032 (uVaxII chips) in some of them.
Brian Hechinger and I just got a few HSC95s. They've got J11s in
them.
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire
Laurel, MD