24 Sep
1999
24 Sep
'99
4:24 p.m.
;) you betcha. Us mill rats were hacking things
together that made the
the infernal field circus nuts.
Yep...
I worked for CSSE, the Field Circus engineering arm.
Our cave was
terminals and printers to year 0. However I was one of those that
scrounged whereever I was for systems and put together some creative
combinations that were not warmly recieved by the PDP-11 CSSE group we
were colocated with. I can still hear Evans asking me how I got two
RL02s, 2 BA11 11/23s and RX02 in the same 40" rack then plugged a LN01
laser printer into it. He swore there was no compatable Qbus interface
for the laser printer till I showed him a LPV11 with a LPV180 cab kit!
There was the many examples of unsupported but works. Remnents of that
beast followed me around from '84 and still sits in my room in a
different rack.
And I worked in the RT-11 development team, but was the 'procurement
division' (scrounger) who would collect parts and put together systems
in our lab (the Cave). I also got involved with a lot of the
reconfigurations when an SPR came in reporting a problem with a
specific configuration.
My best scrounge, though, was an 11/84 system built from parts found
in various locations around the Mill (I regularaly walked around the
Mill looking for discarded -11 parts)
Anywho, I've seen a lot of systems, the joke was
missed on badge vs cpu
installed. Most if not all were never what the badge said they were.
If I wanted to be pendantic I do have the MicroPDP-11 handbooks. But
like I'd said and I think Tim said in the end it's the contents not the
label and whatever you do have, enjoy it. They are all in whatever
current incarnation may now be, good systems that meet the "Robust and
mature systems we know how to use." mantra.
Not lost on me... I've got a couple of BA123 systems at home which
very clearly are uVAXII/GPX systems (badge) -- but one is an 11/83+
and the other is an 11/93. I also have a BA213-based box which
states it is an 11/83, but is a mongrel VS3600 (or so).
Megan Gentry
Former RT-11 Developer
+--------------------------------+-------------------------------------+
| Megan Gentry, EMT/B, PP-ASEL | Internet (work): gentry!zk3.dec.com |
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