7 Sep
2007
7 Sep
'07
12:20 p.m.
On 9/7/07, Jerome H. Fine <jhfinedp3k at compsys.to> wrote:
Nice rig.
Ethan Dicks
wrote:
My first -11 hard drive controller was an RLV11
that ran me about
$100. I dropped into a BA-11N w/KDF11, DLV11J, MSV11-mumble (M8044),
and LPV11 that all ran me $300 in 1986...
Jerome Fine replies:
I seem to remember that my first... was
a VT103 with a PDP-11/23 inside and a DSD 880/8 floppy / hard drive combo.
The latter was an 8 MB RL01 emulation combined with RX02 (actually RX03
although DEC never released their version) 1/2 MB SSDD 8" floppy emulation. At one even shorter period of time, the VT103
backplane had a
PDP-11/73 quad CPU, 4 MB of memory, DHV11 and a Sigma RQD11-EC
controller that supported FOUR * 600 MB ESDI Hitachi hard drives
although it was essential that all of the hard drives were placed
OUTSIDE the VT103 since each required its own fan and all of the
hard drives and their fans also used a separate external power
supply.
Wow... that's a lotta stuff for a VT103.
I have a VT103 up in the attic. I _might_ be able to squeeze a VT100
case somewhere in my office... these days, though, I'd go with a 3.5"
SCSI drive and a Qbus SCSI controller. The real question is, what to
choose for CPU and memory. I could easily pull a KDF11B from the
shelf, add a meg or two on a quad-height board, and between those
three boards, have a running system. What I think I'd prefer, though,
is something with a KDJ11.
So presuming one is starting from the assumption that you have a VT103
and a Qbus SCSI controller, what are good choices for the remainder of
the system? One can assume that 1MB is minimum, but 4MB wouldn't be
unwarranted. I kinda fell off the PDP-11 cart in the KDJ11 era, so
I'm not as conversant with what's out there, but ISTR that there's the
dual-height KDJ11A, and there must be a quad-height KDJ11 of some
flavor, with a variety of common accessories, but I couldn't quote
chapter and verse.
I have an 11/53-level KDJ11 board from a DEC comms controller, with
-11 ROMs installed, but it still has S-box handles, and only has,
IIRC, 1MB on it. I'm thinking that any sort of 11/83 or 11/93 board
is probably going to be priced out of my range, but I'm willing to
entertain the idea. I really don't _need_ the speed of an 11/83 or
11/93, but 4MB on board is attractive (if I've got my boards right).
Anyone else have any ideas on how to trick out a VT103?
-ethan