16 Oct
2007
16 Oct
'07
10:58 a.m.
Yes. There were two system packages - the older
11/730-Z box
(10.5"-tall rackmount box in the middle of a 42" rack, with room for
an RB80 below, and an RL02 above), and a newer BA-11-style package
I've always known it as an 'R80' drive. It's got a somewhat SMD-like
interfacee, but different enough to give SMD hackers headaches. I am told
that the RM80 is the same drive with an external Massbus interface unit.
My 11/730 came in that type of cabinet, and was a standard DEC
configuration. Intead of the RL02 (which, BTW, was linked to the
Integrated Drive Controller, there's no sepratate RL11 card in the
machine), there's an TSU05 front-loading 1/2" magtape. A rebadged Cipher
F880 IIRC. That does link to a separate controller card in a normal
Unibus slot.
You can put 3rd party controllers, like SMD or SCSI in
either the
11/730 or 11/725, or you can hang an external BA-11 off of one and do
what you like (though the 11/730-Z makes it easy to route the BA-11
cable, and the 11/725 does not).
There was an official DEC way to put a Unibus expansion cabinet on the
11/730. A board that went in the Unibus Out slot on the CPU backplane, 3
ribbon cables to a paenl on the bulkhead, then a screened ribbon cable
with 3 connectors on each end to a similar panel on the rack containing
the expanison box, more ribbon cables to a PCB in the Unibus In slot of
the backplane i nthe expansion box. I have this in my 11/730.
-tony