27 Oct
2007
27 Oct
'07
8:48 a.m.
On Sat, Oct 27, 2007 at 12:06:42AM +0100, Tony Duell wrote:
I don't have one, but I did repair one about 10 years ago (it was still
being used for 'real' work back then), so I have some idea as to what was
inside. I never worked on the camera side of things, so I can't comment
on that.
The machine consisted of a normal 11/34 processor (I can't rememebr if
there was a floating point oard in it or not) with a grpahics display
system, I think it was a VS60. There was an RL11 disk controller linked
to (IIRC) a single RL01 drive.
There was also a 5.25" high expanison box. This contains 2 4-slot
backplanee. One was Unibus, linked to the 11/34 Unius, and contains (IIRC
again) the RL11 and the Unibus end of a DW11-B. The other was Q-bus, and
contains the other end of the DW11-B. It also contained 3 special Qbus
cards which were the interface to the camera. I probably took copies of
the printsets for those, but don't expect me to find them in the near future.
The only part I had to repair was the RL11, that was standard. So alas I
didn't get to look at any of the 'interesting' bits.
-tony
Hrmn, this is interesting; I wonder why DEC chose to use an 11/34 for
the Gamma-11, or if the machine was "upgraded" to become a Gamma-11
post-installation. I'm fairly tempted to try to pick up that boardset,
nonetheless... I imagine it is rather difficult to snag anymore though.
Thanks for the details, Tony!
<snip>
I don't recall from having not reread this whether this was a PDP-11
instrument or not, however, but this certainly remindes me of this.
Jim
Yeah, these were PDP-11s, as I recall. In skimming the article, that
seems to be what it indicates as well. I can't help but to feel sorry
for the people who were overexposed to radiation in the Therac-25, but
I get the impression that the lesson from it has been learned, but only
after prolonged time in court.
Cheers,
Phil