If you have an
8/E, I'm afraid an M8433 won't be any use to you,
because it's an RL8A, which is a hex board, not a quad one. It's meant
for a PDP-8/A.
Uggg... so is there hope of any attainable mass storage for my 8E? Ideas?
There are no easy solutions.
If you have a RL02, then you need a 8/a chassis, cables to connect it to
your 8/E chassis, the Hex interface board, then the cable that goes between
the interface and first drive, and a drive terminator. Odds are you dont
have most of those parts.
If you have a 8/F or 8/M, it is possible to remove one of the case fans,
and install the hex wide interface into the chassis. Then you just need
the cable for the first drive and the drive terminator.
Otherwise, You need a quad wide RK05 interface (definitely available, but
probably expensive), the cable (usually not available, but possible to
manufacture), a RK05? drive, and drive terminator. Plus you need special
16 sector DECpacks to use with the RK05.
Personally, I just bought a RK05j and when they get around to shipping it,
I hope to finally have a chance of getting one of my 8/E's going with
mass storage!...
