17 Jan
2002
17 Jan
'02
10:32 a.m.
I've been looking for a cheap laptop with a decent display that I can
put a dual serial PCMCIA card and a network interface into.
/dev/tty1 - 11/750 console
/dev/tty2 - TU58 emulator to 11/750
/dev/tty3 - 11/750 emulator <grin> to TU58
That way I can read/write/load TU58s, back them up to/from the network,
and also have a console terminal. By running FreeBSD (or equiv), I can
have PDF files etc available for reference if required.
My final goal is to design and build a SMD drive emulator that plugs
into the PCI bus, and serve disks to the 11/750 (and 11/780) from
files on the local hard drive of a full blown PC. The power draw
of a modern PC is a LOT less than a single 14" Fujitsu drive, and
the disks are more reliable...
Clint
On Wed, 16 Jan 2002, Ethan Dicks wrote:
--- Doc <doc(a)mdrconsult.com> wrote:
On Wed, 16 Jan 2002, Ethan Dicks wrote:
Not if you were starting from absolute scratch. One idea I had was that
if you had another VAX, one that has the binary files that the console
tape needs (the text files can be fairly easily created - they are less
than a page of text each), there might be a way to squirt the files into
the TU-58 emulator that could be pulled back out by the target 11/730.
The reason for using the other VAX is to use it to easily create the
filesystem on the emulated tape. If you had a way to read the tape
that you do have, you could just put the image on the PC, run the
TU-58 emulator and go.
OK, the reason I haven't joined this thread before is that I'm almost
entirely ignorant wrt console tapes. Plus, up to this point an emulated
TU-58 wouldn't get data off the orphan tapes, so an emulator wouldn't
help much. My question is, why go the small-PC route
instead of using something
like the TU-58 emulator at
http://www.sparetimegizmos.com/Hardware/TU58_Emulator.htm ?
It is really a question, not a suggestion. I think I'm missing a
point somewhere....
The point, at least for me, is that, while the hardware emulator is
cool, the software/PC emulator is cheaper by loads - more power draw,
but it doesn't have to be on full-time. Personally, I would probably
throw a 16Mb box w/multiple serial ports and an ethernet port, all
Linux-friendly. That way, I could log in remotely from another point
on my network, and play with the files used by the emulator. DOS would
not allow that. Hey... you could even throw up Apache and put the
emulator data files in a place that could be inspected by a cgi-script
for "web-u-lation". :-)
I think the hardware-based TU-58 emulator is really cool, but I'm more
likely to throw together something in a $10 PeeCee-oid box.
-ethan
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