> Interesting -- DOS format magtape. 6.3 filenames...
> Some of the command files on that tape look like RSX ones, and some
> are RSTS ones. Makes sense; compilers and things like that built for
> RSX generally run just fine on RSTS (in RSX emulation).
Which reminds me... students at Groningen University wrote a multi-tasking
system for the PDP that was loosely based on EMAS (big mainframe system
>from Edinburgh, sort of like Multics but better). I remember one feature
of the OS was that it used an RT-11 format disk structure for raw storage
even though the user view of files was quite different. For example
I think RT-11 had version numbers (in the style of VMS), but GUTS
showed only the top-level file, and had a "pop" command which deleted
the most recent file and made the version below it visible.
The source is lost (though we do have a disk pack which *may* contain
the OS, if it is still readable) but a scan of the three-book report
is available online: http://history.dcs.ed.ac.uk/archive/scans/guts/ -
Orange is the users guide; Red - system design; Yellow - selected
source listings.
Edinburgh was also fairly big on PDP11's, having written a few operating
systems for it. The british networking operations ran on PDP11's
for years, on an O/S called DEIMOS. (Binary disk images online
at http://history.dcs.ed.ac.uk/archive/os/deimos/ ; sources also
at http://history.dcs.ed.ac.uk/archive/os/emas/emas2/deimos/ - the
binaries ought to work in an emulator; I haven't tried them myself)
Deimos was also used for the front-end terminal servers at Edinburgh,
and as the basis of the Edinburgh Remote Terminal Emulator (ERTE)
which submitted jobs as if they were typed by remote users, to
do accurate performance monitoring without the Heisenberg interaction
of measuring the performance on the system itself.
This has no relation to the 'fuzzball' arpanet routers, written
by David Mills (of NTP fame) who was also at Edinburgh at the time.
Another PDP/11 O/S was "MUSS". There's a manual page for it
here:
http://history.dcs.ed.ac.uk/archive/os/emas/users/ercm09/emas-2900/docum_mm…
I think the sources of MUSS along with the FEP's and ERTE are in
that directory somewhere too. DEIMOS, MUSS, ERTE and the FEPs
were written by Brian Gilmore, now head of the Computing Service.
Ian Young wrote an operating system for the PDP-11 called "rats"
as a student project - I believe he has a paper listing which we
might have scanned some day. That was the first implementation
of lightweight threads that I remember seeing.
All the Edinburgh software was written in Imp, except for a few
assembler parts, but we had our own assembler for it as well:
http://history.dcs.ed.ac.uk/archive/os/emas/users/ercm09/emas-2900/asst11j.…
There were two compilers for the system; one written by the ERCC
based on a simpler bootstrapping compiler called "SKIMP" -
http://history.dcs.ed.ac.uk/archive/languages/imp11-tmp/imp11/sk11v.imp
... and a later one written by the Computer Science department for the
Imp77 language:
http://history.dcs.ed.ac.uk/archive/os/emas/users/ercm11/emas-a/imp119s/
(and a very early version of the above, we think:
http://history.dcs.ed.ac.uk/archive/languages/imp11-tmp/earlyimp11/ )
There's a good writeup of the pdp-11 imp compiler optimisations
here: http://www.gtoal.com/athome/edinburgh/imp/PDP11IMP.htm
Graham
"Streaming type" front loader 9 trk drives are a dime-a-dozen - there's a
couple on the shlf at WierdStuff for $50 and that's about half too much -
but there are plenty of the Cipher 880s, HP and M4 Data drives out there.
--
I'll take every M4 9914 you can find for $25...
880's are a dime a dozen. M4's are not.
d
Does anyone know when blue LEDs first became commercially available? The
pair of Apollos that arrived at the museum yesterday both have
rectangular blue LEDs fitted alongside the amber and green on the front
of the machine - the systems date from 1990 though...
It's possible that someone's fitted them years later of course! They
certainly make the systems stand out though :-)
cheers
Jules
It only runs on 220v, mfg by Commodore, Germany.
It's of little use to me, maybe somone on the other
side of the Atlantic could use it (I'm in the US).
Jeff
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Thank you for your attention . . . .
Jeff
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Hey! If no one has claimed the PDP-11 assembler book, I would
be interested. . . ..
Jeff
On Sun, 24 Oct 2004 20:53:38 -0500 "Jay West" <jwest(a)classiccmp.org>
writes:
>
> > Jay, I have a copy, copywrite 1980.
> Darn, I should have read through all my email first... Someone
> pointed me to
> a copy online outside of ebay and I bought it there :\ That'll teach
> me.
>
> > BTW, you never answered on if you wanted the 11/45 book I had...
> 11/45 book? I'm not sure which one you mean, but most likely I'd be
> quite
> interested in it. I think someone offered me a dec handbook which
> included
> the 11/45, but not sure if that's what you're referring to. Let me
> know!
>
> Regards,
>
> Jay West
>
>
>
>
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Jay, I have a copy, copywrite 1980. Does not appear to have been written
in (notes). It does look like there is some discoloration on the top,
perhaps something sprayed over my books and some got on the top edges.
It did not penetrate very far, and can only be seen barely on the top
edges of the pages when looking through the book..
You can have it. Sometime by me a coffee. It's not worth sending
anything to cover postage. I need an address.
Joe Heck
BTW, you never answered on if you wanted the 11/45 book I had...
