Last night I was browsing the UNIBUS/PDP-11 field
guide on the
Web before I went to sleep. Then I dreamed of a VAX 11/785 with
an UNIBUS extension cabinet full of cards. Included was a 3, 4,
5, or so card-set that together comprises a video interface. Hook
up a composite monitor or RGB monitor and there you have it:
A VAX 11/785 as a workstation!
Write a driver for X11R6 for it and off we go. Has anybody ever
seen those UNIBUS video monitor adapter sets? I suppose they
were meant for PDP-11s, but I think running them with a VAX
would be way cooler. Might not be possible, and certainly would
involve some serious fiddling. But in a machine that has 10 or
more cards for just the CPU, a 4 board video adapter would be
the appropriate thing, wouldn't it? :-)
Read up on the VS100. It hooks up the the VAX 11/78x via a fiberoptic
cable. IIRC, this was the original development platform for X11. Warning,
there seems to be very little info available on the VS100.
Zane