5 Feb
2008
5 Feb
'08
12:52 p.m.
On Tuesday 05 February 2008, der Mouse wrote:
The VAX-11/750 currently in my basement certainly doesn't have a PDP-8
installed in it. Pictures:
http://computer-refuge.org/compcollect/dec/vax/11750/index.html
An 11/780 does have a PDP-11/03 in it as a console subsystem (it's
really really not a front-end processor, no sane person would let a
user bang away at the console of an 11/780... I've hosed the console
program a few times already on my 11/780 just by having the baud rate
at 9600 baud instead of 300). However, an 11/780 also doesn't have a
PDP-8 in it, and wasn't even announced until late 1977.
Pictures of my 11/780 showing the 11/03 in the bottom left of the CPU
rack:
http://flickr.com/photos/vax-o-matic/2203329938/
On Friday 01 February 2008, Dan Gahlinger wrote:
ever heard of
the Vax 11/750 ? You know, the one with the PDP-8 FEP
?
Sure you don't mean the 780? I didn't think the 750 had a FEP at
all; at least, on the ones I used I didn't see anything identifiably
FEPish, either hardware or software. (I also *think* the 750 wasn't
around pre-1980, but I'm a lot less sure of that.) There *IS* a Vax named a "Saul" or
"SOL", I've seen it.
It's a "luggable" (so to speak) like the Rainbow, but it's a Vax.
On Tuesday 05 February 2008, Dan Gahlinger wrote:
I know what it was, it was a true luggable-style
device. not a
vaxstation and not Vaxmate or something like that. but again, it's
been 30 years.
There must be something I'm missing here. You said that the VAXstation
(I'd guess people are taking about the 3100 series here, not the larger
versions that are on wheels) isn't a luggable, but a rainbow is. The
DEC Rainbow I've got at home is bigger than a VAXstation 3100, and
unlike the Osborne 1 and Exec that I've got, does not have a built-in
monitor, or detachable/attachable keyboard. Or, do you mean a form
factor that's not similar to the Osborne 1?
For that matter, are you saying that 30 years ago, in 1978, that Digital
was able to produce a VAX CPU, memory, some sort of storage, and a
monitor that would physically fit into a case the size of the Osborne
1, and which drew a small enough amount of power to comfortably run off
a single 15A, 120V outlet?
My "best guess" is that perhaps you are referring to the PDT series of
luggable PDP-11 systems that DEC produced. However, I don't know when
those were produced, and it could well have been less than 30 years
ago.
Pat
--
Purdue University Research Computing --- http://www.rcac.purdue.edu/
The Computer Refuge --- http://computer-refuge.org