I remember seeing the H11 advertised in my Heathkit catalog, along
with the H8. Since I already had an S100 system, the H8 didn't
interest me much, but H11 intrigued me. I eventually found someone
at work who purchased one--he had expected the H11 to be fully
compatible with DEC hardware, but was sorely disappointed with it,
particularly in terms of compatibility, expandability and
performance. He eventually got himself an S-100 setup (Godbout, I
think) and was much happier.
What few people considered in the early days of the hobbyist computer
was the comparative lack of software for many platforms. I
constructed S-100 cards for the National PACE as well as the GI
CP1600 and they soon floated to the bottom of the hellbox when I
realized that I was going to have to write all of my own software. I
think the same thing happened to those who purchased 6502 and 6800 S-
100 boards.
Mind you, that "PDP-11 compatibility" of the H11 was certainly
attractive and I almost fell for it.
Cheers,
Chuck