5 Apr
2013
5 Apr
'13
5:02 a.m.
________________________________
From: Jon Elson <elson at pico-systems.com>
To: cctalk at classiccmp.org
Sent: Thursday, April 4, 2013 9:32 PM
Subject: VAX 11/780
>From: Brian Roth <abacos_98 at yahoo.com>
>To: "cctech at classiccmp.org" <cctech at classiccmp.org>
>Subject: VAX 11/780
>Message-ID:
>??? <1365090232.96105.YahooMailNeo at web141403.mail.bf1.yahoo.com>
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
>? I just recently acquired a very nearly complete
VAX 11/780. I will
>? be spending the next few months in a partial tear down and cleaning
>? and with luck, hopefully little money to get it operational again. I
>? am looking for whatever spare parts I can find for the VAX and its
?>>
TU78 tape drive. I have plenty of spare drives and such. One thing I
>? am in need of is a console boot floppy and
whatever diags I can find
>? on floppy for it. Also, I do have a hobbyist license but I would
>? like to get an early version of VMS to run on it if I can find a tape.
Holy moly!? Amazing!? Well, I used to know the 780
pretty well, but didn't save anything
from the two I was manager of.? The biggest problem I might imagine is getting the
LSI 11 to boot off the floppy drive.? I suspect original floppies may have deteriorated
to the point they won't read.? Higher-level diags can be booted from tape, but there
were some low-level diags like control store diags that could only be run from the
LSI 11.? I believe the machine could actually CREATE a new diag floppy from the
diag tape, though, so if you can find good blank floppies you could recreate the
diags.
Hmm, refresh my memory, the TU77 was the 800/1600 BPI
drive and the
TU78 was the 1600/6250 drive??
Jon
I remember seeing those diag floppies years ago and there was quite a few.
Unfortunately there was no media with this machine, not even a console
floppy. I'm working on locating those now. Yes, the TU78 is 1600/6250.
Brian.