7 Apr
2013
7 Apr
'13
3:11 a.m.
On Sat, Apr 6, 2013 at 8:32 PM, Arno Kletzander <Arno_1983 at gmx.de> wrote:
That was not a small configuration, but it wasn't uncommon.
When I did PDP-11 consulting in the late 1980s, my "simple" machine in
my home office was a BA-11N with a KDF11-A with 4 32kW memory
boards (they were nearly free by then), an RXV21, an RLV11 ($100 vs
over $1000 for an RLV12), an LPV11, a DLV11J for console and Kermit
port, and BDV-11 for boot ROM and bus termination. That's 7
dual-height cards and three quad-height cards.
What was selling new at time was a MicroPDP-11, so that's a BA-23 with a
quad-height CPU, a quad height memory card, an RQDXn (I forget which
model shipped with the MicroPDPs), a quad-height serial card,
For example
RLV21 quad width, RQDX3 dual, TKQ50 (dual) TK50,
RXV21 (dual) RX02 drive controller, DZV11 serial IO(quad),
LPV11 parallel printer (dual), DEQNA (dual),
full 4mb memory (3 quad boards). don't forget the CPU,
11/23B+ also a quad board.
Thats 16 slots filled plus two grant cards total
18 making a full box.
Was it indeed usual to build such large configurations based on an 11/23 back then?
TQK50, DEQNA and RQDX3 at least sound sound a bit
anachronistic
to me, there surely must have been newer and more powerful
processors out at the time those became available?
There were - you could get a MicroPDP-11 with a KDJ11, and lots
of people did, but they cost more. I wouldn't have wanted to run
an RSX-11/M+ system on a KDF11, but I did see plenty of them on
KDJ11 processors (but even more on Unibus machines).
I think I'll have a rather minimal system
(KDF11-B, 512kW RAM,
quad SLU, RLV12 + one or drives) for now, not making my first
foray into pdp technology more complicated than necessary.
I would call that a mid-range Q-bus PDP-11 myself, not "minimal".
Among other characteristics, I personally think of Q22 as "not minimal".
You can do a lot with RT-11 in 18 bits of memory.
A large Qbus system would be the full 4GB of RAM, Ethernet, a
disk larger than an RQDXn can take (meaning over 150GB),
usually SMD, ESDI or SCSI disk.
-ethan