Another PDP-11 available: Wisconsin

Jerome Fine replies: I agree that if the emulator does not handle all hardware interfaces - and none do all - then what you refer to can't be done. But since the emulator allows a RAM: disk of any size (I have used up to 64 MBytes on a 96 MByte system), I don't need the limited "ram disk" you use on the real PDP-11 hardware. Again, I am not knocking the real PDP-11 hardware for those who feel that way, I just don't find it very exiting running real PDP-11 hardware as opposed to using the emulator when it is appropriate. Now when I can't run the emulator on a newer PC any more and the real PDP-11 hardware is still working and the old PC is broken, then back to the tried and true. It will be a race between 3 things: (a) The real PDP-11 hardware broken (b) The emulator not able to run on a new PC OS and the old PC broken (c) Me broken (dead!) I figure the race to last between 10 and 40 years. Right now I am 62 years old and have been using the PDP-11 for over 25 years. My minimum goal is at least 50 years!! I would like to last until January 1st, 2036 when the DATE value in RT-11 first becomes negative. Talk about long range goals when this list is supposed to look back only 10 years. Yes, I could have gone to the trouble of putting ODT into memory along with the boot ROM code for that DD RX02 on the real PDP-11, but it was much easier to copy the RX02 image to an RX50, then copy the RX50 image from the HD floppy drive to a container file on the Pentium which was then MOUNTed as an RX02 image. The emulator allowed me to stop after the code at boot block zero was loaded and then step through the code. Interestingly enough, the stand alone program contained a copy of software ODT which I then used to continue the debugging (after it was loaded by the boot program in block zero). Since the emulator was able to emulate a real RX02 drive in double density mode (pretend the container file of 988 blocks was an RX02 image on an 8" RX02 DD compatible floppy), there was no problem at all with the emulator. And it was all quite legal since no operating system was involved (although the RX02 image had been prepared under RSX-11 for which I don't have a license). The real trouble is that I think you are correct for being very inclined to be real PDP-11 hardware oriented. But do you feel it is OK for me to be very inclined toward software? If your answer is YES!, then we both agree completely. BUT, I will still continue to agree that real PDP-11 hardware is great for those who are inclined that way!! Sincerely yours, Jerome Fine