8 Jul
2005
8 Jul
'05
4:59 p.m.
On 7/8/05, Jay West <jwest at classiccmp.org> wrote:
Problem:
The unibus space on the cpu backplane is quite limited. At the VERY least I
have to keep one of the DL11's there, so that leaves me with two more unibus
slots for peripherals. I *THINK* that that standard controller for an RX02
or RL02 takes all 6 rows (Hex cards?). However, the DSD440 controller only
takes slots C-F (quad?). The linctape II controller also only takes C-F. So,
I think I could have a reasonable system by putting the DSD440 controller,
LincTape controller, and a DL11 and be done with it.
The RL11 is a hex card. The RX11 is a quad card.
I understand wanting to keep to a single rack, but to be honest, back
in the day, a single-rack 11/34 was pretty common, but the larger
machines tended to have multiple racks, a BA-11 in addition to the
CPU, etc. A BA-11K holds up to 3 DD11DK backplanes, *lots* of space.
You can also mount RK11D backplanes in there, or an RK611 for
RK06/RK07... all commonly done on machines in the 1970s and 1980s.
I'm sure there's other solutions. Can someone
advise me on what is likely to
be the best route to go? I don't want this to be a really huge /45 setup.
I'd like to run RT11 v5 with TSX+ on it. Temporarily, I'd also like to try
loading up RSTS and some form of Unix. Thoughts anyone?
Hmm... starting from small to large (memory), I'd say that RT-11 v5
should have 32Kw, a bit more for TSX+ to make sense (why try to cram
multiple "users" into 32K?), a bit more for RSTS (128K?) and as much
memory as the processor can address for most UNIX versions you are
likely to want to run.
In terms of disk, RT11 can live just fine on floppies, but a disk is
nice, even an RL01 or RL02 (5MB or 10MB). Older versions of RSTS are
OK on an RL02 or two; newer ones (v9, v10) may not fit on a system
with a single RL02. 2.9BSD doesn't really fit in 10MB - you can load
it, but there's no room for kernel sources. Not sure about disk
requirements for v6, v7, etc., but 10MB might be OK.
With leaving the top of the rack empty for cooling (probably not a bad
idea in a non-machine-room environment), your options are severely
limited. If it were my system, I don't think I'd even consider trying
to fit in a single rack, but I have a) empty H960 racks and b) space
to set them up.
Still... sounds like a cool system.
-ethan