21 Jul
2010
21 Jul
'10
6:39 p.m.
On 7/21/10, Jos Dreesen <jdr_use at bluewin.ch> wrote:
I am looking for a set of boot proms that would enable me to boot from the
RL01 that is connected to my PDP8/A
That is, if such a boot prom actually exists.....
It does. I have one set (and the RL8A to go with it). I do not have
a spare set, though, nor do I know where to find blanks (though
coincidentally, minutes ago, I was asking Charlie Lasner about a bit
of firmware he was talking about that gives you conversational boot
for RX, RK, RF, and TC01 DECtape).
As for the "real" KM8AA ROMs, I think there are three known sets.
They've been discussed on the list before, but I can't seem to find
the thread easily. They took out one of the older devices to make
room for the RL boot, but I can't remember for certain which device
was obsoleted (probably either RF or DECtape).
And as a side note : why is the 8/A so unloved ?
It came late.
Big RL01 disk, 128k memory, fpp processor, all in one
case. Try that with
another -8 !
The 128K of memory wasn't all that useful with OS/8 (ISTR there was a
RAM disk handler), and RTS/8, even with OS/8 as a running task, didn't
seem to be all that popular (though I did gen a few RTS/8 installs
back in the day, just to play with the inter-process aspect of it). I
don't think the RL8A was all that popular either, not compared to the
number of systems that shipped with either RK05 or RX01/RX02.
My second -8 was an -8/a. I have it pretty well loaded (including a
programmer's panel), but don't have an FPP for it.
-ethan