OK, this is a little wierd. Let me start by saying I have no clue as to
who the person is selling the system, I just think the pictures are the
best I've seen. Beware, they're big, and there is three of them.
http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=291428599
I thought the first two were especially nice. Really make my -8/m shots
look horrible.
Zane
| Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Adminstrator |
| healyzh(a)aracnet.com (primary) | Linux Enthusiast |
| healyzh(a)holonet.net (alternate) | Classic Computer Collector |
+----------------------------------+----------------------------+
| Empire of the Petal Throne and Traveller Role Playing, |
| and Zane's Computer Museum. |
| http://www.aracnet.com/~healyzh/ |
>After putting the skins back on the machine it is giving me a ERROR 13 -
>DU0 not ready error.
If you have a BA23, make sure that the pushbuttons on the front panel
are set correctly (one is for drive enable, one is for drive write
protect).
>I knew it wouldn't be that easy. I have a couple of spare ST506-type
>drives to hang off it but don't know how picky the controller is or where
>to find install media for an operating system. The drive sounds fine
>(spins up and purges but no boot anymore) DAMN.
Depending on which RQDX interface you have, you may or may not be able
to put any ST506 disk on it that you want... early controllers were
pre-programmed with the characteristics of the disks they would work
with... anything else couldn't be used. I don't know if the RQDX3
allows more lattitude, but using RD52, RD53 or RD54 is the way to go,
if you can find them...
>What free operating systems are out there for this machine. I suppose I
>will get another drive up and running and then get the data off of this
>one if it is possible. DAMN.
Precious little... If you want to run Unix, you could try to get
Ultrix-11, but that was retired by DEC long before it was acquired
by Compaq. All the pdp-11 operating systems from DEC are licensed.
You could run *real* BSD Unix, but for an 11/23[+], you'll need
2.9BSD. A license will cost $100 (check with the PUPS web page).
>To be honest I think I didn't park the drive before powering off the last
>time and suspect a head crash wiped the boot sector or something like
>that. Now when I try to boot I hear the drive track but get this error.
>DAMN.
Ouch... there was a problem with earlier controller boards when
powering off the system box before the disk... the write signals
would go active and the disk would have garbage randomly written
on it...
>How can I get boots to restore a system?
Again... the DEC PDP-11 operating systems are licensed software, they
can't simply be handed out...
Yes, I suspect it ran up to six terminals as there are two controlled from
the cpu card and four controlled by a terminal controller card.
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 |
+--------------------------------+-------------------------------------+
>Doesn't sound like a huge amount of ram to me as my Data General Mini has
>8mb onboard. Now that is a BIG ram card!
Remember that the max physical memory on Qbus is 4mb...
>Does RT11 have:
>
>Virtual Memory?
Depends on which monitor you are running... the SJ(SB) and FB
monitors only use 28kw (56kb)... that is all there is for the
OS and user programs. Any additional memory *can* be used as
a fast disk volume. Programs should not touch the memory
mapping registers, though they can (RT allows one to shoot
one's self in the foot)
The XM monitor takes over the memory management of the machine
and provides system services to allow programs access to all
the rest of memory -- but programs have to be written specially
to make use of it, otherwise they exist in a 32kw virtual
address space.
>Networking?
Not integral... there was DECnet/RT, but that was only Phase III,
and no Ethernet. It was because of this that I wrote a piece of
networking software for RT machines specifically (check my web
page). There is a package from DECUS which provides a TCP/IP
stack... You can find it through www.trailing-edge.com (or is
it metalab.unc.edu that has it). Anyway, I think it is decus
package 110939 (but I might be wrong).
>How do I run it? I can do dirs and type files etc but I really need some
>docs on the operating system to get anywhere with it. Thanks for the
>reply! --
Try HELP... it will give you the commands available.
Unlike MS/DOS and Windows, which don't come with any program development
tools, RT is an execution environment *and* a development environment...
the tools you need to write your own programs come with the distribution
-- an assembler (MACRO), a linker (LINK), a module librarian (LIBR) and
several debuggers (ODT, VDT, DBG).
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 |
+--------------------------------+-------------------------------------+
<This evening I accidentally aquired a PDP-11/23 (model # 11E23-FE). It
<has RD-52A hard disk and dual floppies like the ones on a Rainbow.
sounds like a BA23 with a PDP-11/23 in it. There are many varients of the
11/23 cpu and you need a handle number and boot page info.
<What can I do with it? It does boot and is running RT11 with 512k of ram.
First off it's a computer, you can do whatever computers do.
More ram? By PDP-11 standard 512k is quite enough to be very useful and
even a large system. More memory is in the form of boards assuming the is
space in the backplane for it.
<It appears to have a fault. It often runs for just a few minutes then
<drops to a @ prompt and starts spitting out strings of ? marks endlessly.
<Is this a failure anyone is familiar with? How can I tack more ram on it?
May be a problem with the terminal not the PDP-11. Some terminal emulators
if hit with the wrong stuff will spew crap. The PDP-11 you have likely
has halt on BREAK enabled.
<The machine is is fairly good condition and appears complete. --
While you supplied only a cursory description, it sounds like a nice
machine.
Allison
Hi,
If you ask such questions, please state where you are located. As for the
questions, sorry, not interested, but thanks anyway for asking.
Wim Hofman
----------
> From: Jerome Fine <jhfine(a)idirect.com>
> To: classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org
> Subject: HP 85 tapes / TU58 tapes
> Date: Thursday, March 23, 2000 6:34 AM
>
> I have a friend who may be selling some of his TU58 / HP 85
> tapes. Is there anyone who wishes to trade and PDP-11 Qbus
> hardware. I am also looking for a SONY SMO S501 or
> compatible magneto optical drive and cartridges (512 bytes per
> sector).
>
<> Or, wouldn't it work to just use a Q18 backplane which doesn't bus BDAL21
<> I would think that even the 11/73 CPU would be OK then, as long as you do
<> mind living with 248 KB memory...
<
<Or maybe you could put the CPU/RAM/DMA peripherals in a Q22 backplane and
<then link that to a Q18 backplay with the ADV11 card in it. If you like,
<you could connect BDAL18-BDAL21 between Qbus In and Qbus Out on that
<backplane, so that you could have more Q22 backplanes 'dowstream' of it.
You can but the collective system will be the least of the two and not
additive on items like address bus width. Likely that would have
wraparound if enough memory or a non BBS7 compatable IO. If a bord is
only Q16 or Q18 the options are mod it if possible for q22 or restrict
the bus useage to the level of the least board.
Allison
<I guess I must have just gotten lucky to get it to boot those two times.
<This is what the machine does <most> of the time.
<
<KDF11B-BE ROM V0.9
<
< 512KB MEMORY
<9 STEP MEMORY TEST
< STEP 1 2 ERR RAP
<173714
<@
173714 is the address at which the boot selftest program failed. not in ram
as 173xxx, is the boot/room page.
The count down is each specific test either you get a memeory test error
something else. Assumeing the board and rom are ones I know a stop at that
address means a NO was types on the terminal duriing console test!
To be sure we'd need to know the board handle numbers and rom numbers.
to gove that answer I assumed 11/23+ M8189 cpu card, but the message
appears to be for an 11/23B cpu/rom set. My guess is you have a bum tube!
Also don't apply PC troubleshooting rules to a PDP-11, you'll make youself
nuts!
<Does this mean that the ram card is bad at a given location? If so, there
<is no reason I can't replace the ram on the card with a desoldering iron.
<I would like to socketize the ram but I don't think there is enough room
<between cards to make that happen so I'll have to solder them directly to
<the board and pray I have no more failures.
You can, it's possible, you have no clue yeat if it's bad ram.
<Is the above 6digit number the location of the failed bit/byte of memory?
No, it's a location in rom where the program failed.
Allison
On Mar 23, 16:05, Cameron Kaiser wrote:
> They're black, about the size of (spit) a Windows CE box, I guess. It
folds
> open to reveal a keyboard with red, orange and burgundy-ish keys, and
then a
> single row 40?-character LCD with a "summary of commands" below that (in
> Dutch, not much good to me). Does this ring any bells?
Hmm... not really -- it's not quite what I thought. Teletext and Viewdata
normally use colour, chunky graphics (each character cell is divided into a
2 x 3 mosaic grid), and a 40 x 25 character screen. So either this is some
really simple device, or that's just a status display: is there any socket
anywhere that could be a video or TV connector? Serial connector? Any
others? What's marked on the keys?
> I'm particularly interested in figuring out how to talk to them *without*
> having one unit on one end, like, say, have my workhorse C128 talk to
them,
> upload and download from them, etc.
>
> I'm confident the baud rate would be low enough for the Commodore to
handle
> a transfer, but I'm not sure if a regular modem and the Text Tell could
even
> communicate (using the same modulation, etc.) I'm afraid I don't know
much
> about telecom standards, so the V.23 note went over my head. :-(
If it's European, it will use CCITT tones rather than Bell tones (I'm
assuming it's simple FSK modulation). The V23 standard is rather like Bell
202 (V23 uses 2100/1300Hz and 202 uses 2200/1200Hz); half-duplex except
that it has a modulated 75 baud back-channel, while Bell 202 has a 5 baud
CW back-channel, a 387Hz tone keyed on and off for signalling. The answer
tones are slightly different too. However, there's a small chance it might
be V21, which is 300 baud full duplex. Again, though, CCITT V21 uses
different tones to Bell 103.
As an aside, when viewdata was popular over here, there were low-cost
adapters and software for lots of common machines, including Commodores.
> ::Ob.pedantry: it would be Viewdata (comms channels), not teletext
> ::(broadcast).
>
> *blush* :-)
I'll let you off -- lots of people don't know the difference :-)
--
Pete Peter Turnbull
Dept. of Computer Science
University of York
Thanks, Tim, I was actually hoping for a FOCAL language reference manual.
I started learning computers with a KIM and machine code. I did a little
work with FOCAL on the KIM but my memory is very hazy about the language
itself.
----------
> From: CLASSICCMP(a)trailing-edge.com
> To: classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org
> Subject: RE: FOCAL (was: KIM/6502 code)
> Date: Thursday, March 23, 2000 12:27 PM
>
> I hope this helps. If none of these packages meets your needs, you
> might ask again for your specific platform(s). Enjoy!
>That's kind of what I thought it meant :^( Guess I really will have to
>get the PDP-11/23 up and running if I want to play with this board.
Make sure it is a 11/23, not 11/23+, and make sure it is a Rev.A board
or it too will be looking at BDAL18...
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 |
+--------------------------------+-------------------------------------+
