> Anyway, does anyone have experience of rack-mounting a TU56? It clearly
> doesn't go on slide rails, it bolts directly to the rack (hinge down
> the front
> panel for access). I have the manuals from Bitsavers, they imply there
> is some
> kind of spacer block that goes under the TU56. Does anyone know what
> that
> is exactly so I can attempt to make one if it is needed.
>
> -tony
I mounted my TU56 in an H960 recently(ish). The block you mention only acts
as a support while you bolt the TU56 in and isn't needed afterwards. The
TU56 is too heavy to easily support with one hand while you put in a couple
of bolts - the manual advises separating the front panel and reassembli8ng
after mounting but that seems more bother than it's worth. I bolted a piece
of scrap across the H960 to hold the TU56 up while I put the bolts in.
5-minute job.
>
> Date: Fri, 16 Dec 2016 13:12:45 -0600
> From: "Jay West" <jwest at classiccmp.org>
> Subject: RE: Rack-mounting a TU56
>
> Speaking of which - I'll put out a call again for if anyone wants to get a
> group purchase on the motor run caps for a TU55/56....
>
> J
>
Yes please.
--
Michael Thompson
> I remember reading somewhere (it was decades ago, sorry, don't remember
> the source) that AI's paging box was subtly different from the one on
> DM; the AI one could IIRC, address 4 'moby's (a full PDP-10 address
> spare), and two (I think? I'm pretty sure all the KA's had two moby's
> of main memory) were used for the Fabritek 2-moby memory, one was for
> the PDP-6 (so the KA could see into it) and one was for the PDP-11's.
I wasn't able to track down the source of that, but reading ITS sources did
confirm (see SYSTEM;CONFIF >) that the AI paging box had one more bit of
output address than the ones on DM and ML. And the PDP-6 memory appeared at
03000000.
I now recall that later in the AI KA's life, the Fabritek ('Moby') memory got
flaky, and it was replaced with a kludge (done by HIC, according to the ITS
source) which used a number of LISPM memory cards.
> (AI had a number of PDP-11's attached to it - one to drive the Xerox
> Graphic Printer, one to drive the Knight TV system, and I think maybe
> one more, the so-called I/O -11 - or was that on MC, which had two
> -11's - the standard KL front console -11, and I think one more?
So the I/O-11 code (see SYSTEM;IOELEV >) ran on 3 PDP-11's; two on MC (one
was the front console, interfaced through a DTE20, and one an I/O processor
interfaced through a DL10 - this latter one was used to hook up to the CHAOS
network).
The other machine running this code was the so-called "CHAOS-Ether-Gateway"
machine on AI (AI had two other -11's, as above). I had this vague memory that
that machine was there before it was hooked up to either the CHAOS net, or the
(3 Mbit) Ethernet, and it was doign something else, previously - but maybe not
- maybe it was added to give the AI KA access to the CHAOS network?
> From: David Bridgham dab at froghouse.org
> I thought I'd heard that the 10s were connected to the Chaosnet through
> 11s running MINITS.
That would have required building a 10-11 interface for them.. :-)
But if you look in SYSTEM;CONFIF > you can find this:
IFE MCOND MLKA,[
..
DEFOPT CH10P==1 ;CHAOS NET VIA PDP-10 I/O BUS, NOT FRONT-END
and then in SYSTEM;CHAOS >
SUBTTL CH-10 HARDWARE DEFINITIONS
IFN CH10P,[
CHX==470 ;I/O DEVICE NUMBER
;CONI/CONO BITS
So there were PDP-10 I/O bus CHAOS network interfaces. (Although I have
absolutely no, zero, memory of them! :-)
Noel
> From: Paul Koning
> Disassembling the mechanics is quite another matter. The spindle and
> head actuator assemblies are precision mechanisms with very tight
> tolerances and alignment requirements.
Oh, I wouldn't take out anything that would require precision realignment. (I
would certainly carefully read the entire maintenance manual before attempting
to lighten it by removing things.) But some could come out - e.g. if the
spindle drive motor uses a drive belt (many do), that would therefore be safe
to take out. And the power supplies - you might want them out anyway, to
recondition the caps, and check them out. Etc, etc.
Noel
> From: Lars Brinkhoff
> I wonder how the AI PDP-6 was used back in the day. I suppose ITS
> development moved to the KA10 using the virtual memory pager, leaving
> the 6 behind. But it was still attached as a slave CPU, right?
Yes. There is a document, "February 1972 ITS Status Report", AIM-238, which is
>from a point in time when both CPUs were in operation as a dual-CPU system,
with paging on the KA10, and it contains a considerable amount of technical
detail. It is available here:
https://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/6194
as a scan, and someone has recently OCR'd it, here:
http://its.victor.se/wiki/aim-238
The section you probably find most interesting is "Dual Processors" (pg. 29),
which describes the unified, shared I/O bus.
The earlier "ITS 1.5 Status Manual" might also be interesting; it covers a
point in time when I think they only had a PDP-6.
>> I think all the DM people are still around - why not ask one of them
>> for more?
> I will.
I'd be interested to hear anything about the DM PDP-6 which you find out.
Ideally it would be optimal to load any information into the Computer History
Wiki, but alas, creation of new accounts on that seems to be wedged at the
moment; I'm working on trying to get that solved.
Noel
Van: Ethan Dicks<mailto:ethan.dicks at gmail.com>
Verzonden: vrijdag 16 december 2016 20:43
Aan: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts<mailto:cctalk at classiccmp.org>
Onderwerp: Re: Rack-mounting a TU56
On Fri, Dec 16, 2016 at 2:12 PM, Jay West <jwest at classiccmp.org> wrote:
> Speaking of which - I'll put out a call again for if anyone wants to get a group purchase on the motor run caps for a TU55/56....
I need a few.
-ethan
I have one TU56. There will come a day that I am up to connect it ?
Until then I don?t know in what shape the run caps are, so I probably
do wise to join in this group buy opportunity ? depending the cost ?
* Henk, PA8PDP
Hi all --
I'm in need of an RL02 cable (drive to drive). I picked up a second
drive for my PDP-11/40 and I'd like to get it hooked up.
Thanks as always,
Josh
> From: Henk Gooijen
> I really do not want to mess with the mechanical construction of the
> entire RP03 drive. ... I want to move them "as is".
Well, don't forget, you're probably going to want to go through them
thoroughly before you try and use them, and you might do a fair amount of
dis-assembly for that anyway. So a certain amount of 'taking apart' to get
it out would be useful.
Noel
Spotted on Craigslist, no prices known, no relation to seller, but
some nice items:
https://tucson.craigslist.org/sys/5846658097.html
Highlights (IMO): 3B2/400, Xerox Star, HP6000/300, Televideo 910 and
lots of micro and workstation stuff besides.
-j
An old cabinet that only IBM had the key, they came by took what they
wanted and left it full
I only got a quick shot of what's in there .. any interest ? Located
Portland, Oregon
https://goo.gl/photos/rSUZ9nnxsrxN8nku5