21 Dec
2013
21 Dec
'13
12:59 a.m.
On Fri, Dec 20, 2013 at 09:56:02PM -0500, Rick Murphy wrote:
Yes, there was a version of TSS/8 that ran on RK05
media. The way I
implemented this was to use OS/8 on the "RKA0" half of the disk,
compiling the TSS/8 bits, and installed TSS/8 on the "RKB0" side.
Oh wicked cool, so it's true!! Way to go! Plus you were building more
or less natively? (The listings I had for TSS/8.24 built for Melrose H.S.
were from PAL-10.)
Bob Shelley wrote a UUO for TSS/8 that allowed an
application to
operate what would be called pseudo terminals today: send input to a
detached terminal's input buffer and read whatever was in the
terminal's output buffer.
Wow ... so Telnet would be possible! OK OK or a batch processor. Nice.
Their 8/E system with expansion box to handle 24 KL8Es,
bus
converter, 32 Mb of memory, etc. was just too fragile (too many bus
loads) and failed all the time.
My 8/E came with something like 19 KL8Es and an LC8E and the one time I
could afford to have F-S come look at it, the first thing they said was
to dump the second box and move the core into the main box, or I'd go
crazy with crashes. Guess there was a lot of that going around! It's
not like I really ran more than a handful of TTYs anyway.
Sadly, none of that code ever saw the light of day
outside of DEC.
By any chance did you save it? The only reason I knew about the RK8E stuff
was because it was once in the DECUS catalog so that much must have been
allowed out the door at least ... semi-legitimately, even.
I never get tired of how amazingly well TSS/8 squeezed every drop out
of a PDP-8. And it put on quite a lights show doing it.
John Wilson
D Bit