IBM, DEC and a backache

So once again I heed the call of classiccmp in distress and once again the mini-truck was packed to the brim and riding low. We cleaned out a storeroom of a small college last weekend and finally got everything unloaded last night - everything that would fit, that is. Had to leave some TRS-80s behind (always painful) but fortunately they were scooped up later the same night by another local collector. Here's my haul: https://picasaweb.google.com/102190732096693814506/March1Haul The incomplete inventory: - 5x IBM RT systems: 3x 6150 towers, 2x 6151 desktops - some variances in name and badging amongst all these which will have to be explored - 6x IBM RT monitors: 4x 5081 "Megapel" displays, 2x 6154 "Advanced Color Graphics Display" (I don't know which, if any, of the RTs have the necessary Megapel card) - 2x IBM 6157 Streaming Tape drives, one apparently NIB - IBM 8228 Token Ring MAU, NIB - IBM RT 8-port serial cards and break-out boxes, some boxed - DEC half-rack - DEC PDP 11/23 Plus system to be inventoried soon - quick check shows 11/73 CPU upgrade and Emulex SCSI card - Emulex PE02 Medley drive - Boxed DEC VT220 terminal (not sure if it's unused or not) - Boxed DEC LK201 terminal keyboard - IBM RT keyboards, not enough for all these systems - Various IBM RT docs, some in box - Various ISA cards to be ID'd later I already owned an RT desktop (6151 of some sort) and a small monochrome display which, if I went downstairs to check, would probably turn out to be a 5151, so I'm marginally familiar with RT stuff. But now that this load has appeared, more opportunities are opened...especially when it comes to graphics. It will take some weeks to ID all this stuff and figure out what's what, but I'd love to see the "Megapel" system in action. There are a few disks in the documentation box but I don't believe there is an OS. Anyone know if there are images out there? I think these things use regular PC floppy drives so hopefully the disk format is writable with the tools out there. Or, did the OS come on tape instead? If I read the right FAQ, RTs used ESDI drives. Imaging these drives will be a priority. I have an ISA ESDI controller (somewhere) that I could possibly put into a Linux box. I have no idea what filesystem early AIX used or if there is a way to mount it in another Unix. If the RTs work (or at least one does,) I could dump to tape or some other removable media instead. Despite the size of this haul....no mice. And of course, like the keyboards, IBM RT mice are proprietary, or at least the connectors are. I'll have to check the FAQs and such out there to see if anyone has adapted a PS/2 mouse to it. If these did have the graphics boards, I'd expect to have seen mice with them. But thanks to their size and relative uselessness, those mice were probably the first things to get tossed out :( Now on to the PDP...haven't dug into the cards inside yet but I do see an Emulex SCSI board, so that is automatic win. Can anyone ID the PE02 drive? I can't tell if that's 1/4" tape or what? Google isn't helpful. Taking on that half-rack is the reason for my post for the free SA600 rack (no takers yet on that, btw.) Despite what the realtor told me, the basement is a finite space. I am trying to find more info on what these machines did. I was told the PDP was used for students learning Pascal. Stuffed into its case was a printout with instructions on booting it into UNIX, so that's probably what it ran. The RTs did some sort of administration task at the college, so I am expecting to find AIX on them rather than AOS, the "Academic Operating System" that was used on some RTs in educational settings. I've found the RT FAQ and pcrt.info (which looks like a spam site) so far....any other RT experts or resources will be appreciated. With some luck and work, VCFMW's on-site server may be running AIX 1.x this year ;) -- jht