14 Dec
2003
14 Dec
'03
5:23 a.m.
J.C. Wren wrote:
Supposing you're one of those people that have
always wanted a PDP-11/74,
but know next to nothing about them. Is there a good guide anywhere for
"here's the cards, here's the combinations they'll work in, and
here's why
mixing this card with that card will work, but isn't a good idea."
I'd like to wind up with an 11/74, but I'm willing to work my way there,
like say, if I could boot the thing sans front panel, and then find one
later. I certainly happy to troll eBay and whatever else picking up what
I can, but I have no idea what I should *want*.
There were only about four PDP 11/74 systems ever made! They use a bunch
of modules and subsystems that were never used in any other systems, such
as the IIST (Interprocessor Interrupt and Sanity Timer) and the MKA11
multi-port memory. The KB11-Cm CPU is similar to the common KB11-C used
in the 11/70, but some modules are different, as is the backplane.
The probability that you can find enough of this stuff to make an
11/74, or even just a single-processor subset of one, is vanishingly
small. I don't think trolling eBay will ever turn up any of it.
Are you sure you're really asking about the 11/74? If you want an
11/84 or 11/94, that's much more likely to happen.