Life with PDP-11's.

In 1977 I started out with an 11/35 with 4 RK05 drives. System was on one pack, programs on another pack, data was stored on 2 packs. Software was hard coded to look for 2 Megs of data files at a time. When we got the RP04 we made it look like 20 RK05's to the application software. In about 1980 our R&D lab had upgraded from a PDP11/35 to a PDP11/70 system with one RP04. We were in a computer room in the middle of a warehouse, when we asked for more AC they said we could have an additional air conditioner. About a week later a sawsall blade came through the wall of the computer room as they cut a hole for a new window air conditioner. The output side was in the general warehouse space! We were a little mad because nobody warned us about the dust flying into the computer room. We shutdown until the AC was installed. It did cool the room down a lot. Only having one RP04 was a problem. Whenever a backup was scheduled I took the system pack and the backup pack in the back of my Toyota to another computer room a mile away so that I could do a standalone backup. Nothing like walking across the parking lot with the system disk in one hand and the backup copy in the other. I was careful not to drop either pack. Later we thought about getting a VAX 11/730 but decide the 11/70 was fast enough. Mike