13 Apr
2013
13 Apr
'13
9:23 p.m.
On 04/13/2013 08:56 PM, Jerome H. Fine wrote:
There is more to vintage computing than just software!
There is more to vintage computing than just software!!
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire, AK4HZ
New Kensington, PA
I've been
learning about the PDP-11 lately thanks to the wonder that
is Simh, running various software on it and generally having fun. I
don't have any purpose other than that at this time. I've been running
everything I can get my hands on though I find, given my background,
tastes and biases, that it's usually either Unix Version 7 or,
especially, 2.11BSD that I'm firing up and exploring rather than, say
the more DEC traditional RSTS/E.
That said, I've been wondering what would be different (aside from
noise & heat ;) about running 2.11BSD on hardware rather than in Simh
on my increasingly decrepit Dell C640 running Xubuntu. Logically I
should spend the money on a new intel based laptop but what's the fun
in that?
If you don't already have any DEC systems to run 2.11BSD, then
I suspect that staying with SimH is probably a better alternative. But then that
turns on the question - is there even a cheap PDP-11
that can run 2.11BSD? I don't need a speed demon but how small is too
small vs big enough?
Is there any particular reason that real DEC CPUs are important?