15 Feb
2003
15 Feb
'03
10:06 a.m.
--- Stuart Johnson <stuart(a)stuartsjohnsonfamily.net> wrote:
I know that some of the folks on the list (including
myself) enjoy old
DEC equipmen
True.
The opening price is $250 US. I had not seen a picture
of a PDP-8 /A
before.
That one is nicely loaded. If I didn't have one just like it, I
might be tempted. Notable features include the KT8A MMU (not really
useful under OS/8, but if you want to play with RTS-8 it's kinda
nice), the RL8A, and most of all, the push-button front-panel.
About the only "standard" things it's missing are a 128KW MOS board
(instead of the two 32K boards), an RX8E, possibly a 4-port SLU
board (KL8A? KL8EJ?) and perhaps a parallel printer board (there were
several for either the LA180 or one of the daisy-wheel printers
that were common when the -8/a was sold as a WPS-8 machine).
I have an RL01 disk or two with OS/8 on it, but my -8/a has a
broken KM8A - when it's installed, the bus is locked up and I
don't get normal response from the front panel. When I remove
the KM8A, I can talk to the CPU and toggle in little programs
(in the lowest 4K). One of these days, I need to sit down and
debug that KM8A.
If I had a working KK8E, I could pull the KK8A/KM8A out. That's a
different kettle of fish (but at least I finally was able to dismantle
and repair my sticky circuit breaker)
Given a disk, that -8/a could make someone very happy. It has everything
else you'd need (except cables, probably ;-)
-ethan