14 Apr
2001
14 Apr
'01
8:13 p.m.
Dave McGuire wrote:
On April 13, Jerome Fine wrote:
Not exactly. I've several monetary offers in-hand for
analyses for
when I finish getting it connected to the microscope.
Jerome Fine replies:
This sounds very much like what I do. I make modifications to the RT-11
Operating System for the fun and the challenge. Right now I am working
on the SL: (Single Line Editor) for about the tenth time over the past ten
years. Every so often, someone comes along who needs some paid work
done with RT-11. Last year with Y2K bug fixes, it was a good year. This
year seems like it will be a bottom year for any paid work - in fact, it will
almost certainly be a loss.
What is really great is when I get to do some work that I usually do for free
and get paid for it.
I care
about it; I like it quite a bit. I have a Micro 11/73
running v5.4, and a Kevex X-ray analyzer (an accessory to the electron
microscope) that has a pdp11/73 in it that runs RT-11.
I sounds like this is now
strictly for hobby use. As far as I can tell Kevex shipped analyzers in this
configuration
until just a couple of years ago. Now their newer products are based
around a Windows PeeCee that takes over twice as long to run a spectral
analysis on a sample as their previous [J11 and embedded Z8000] design
did.
I once worked with a system that had a SKYMNK co-processor in an
11/23 system in the same Qbus backplane. Sounds similar. If it were not
for all those special boards, you could run the system on a PC with an emulator
to run RT-11. Even with the special boards, the fellow that services the
system might find it possible to switch to a PC with a PCI <=> Qbus Adapter
board and still run the RT-11 emulator for the stuff that RT-11 can't emulate.
In most cases, however, the original manufacturer decides to toss RT-11
completely because of the cost of the RT-11 license. The adapter is even
more expensive, so that solution is only when the original software investment
is VERY large and RT-11 can still run the original software extremely well
and the non-DEC Qbus boards can still be maintained.
Do you have
any non-DEC
boards? What is the interface between the PDP-11 and the microscope?
I have tons
of them. I assume you mean in the Kevex analyzer. ;) The
analyzer consists of a KDJ11 board, a third-party disk controller
board, a graphics board, and a bunch of parallel I/O ports. It
connects to a custom backplane containing an embedded Z8000 data
cruncher, which in turn connects to a NIM bin which contains the
analog front-end and detector interface and the A/D converter stuff.
The detector attaches to the rear of the microscope chamber in an
accessory port. How does RT-11
perform? Are there any enhancements that you could use
at this point?
It performs wonderfully. The only thing I'd like better is if
it [the
control software] were networkable, but since most of it talks
directly to the graphics board in the qbus backplane, I doubt that'd
be a likely hack candidate. The unit isn't old enough to be able to
get the source out of Kevex for hobbyist use, since it's still a
supported model.