29 Jun
2009
29 Jun
'09
3:38 p.m.
----------Original Message:
Date: Mon, 29 Jun 2009 10:57:52 -0700
From: Rich Alderson <RichA at vulcan.com>
From: Michael Kerpan
Sent: Monday, June 29, 2009 9:51 AM
I'd be interested to know what's out there vis
a vis classic systems
that are on the Internet offering public access. Currently, I know of
twenex.org (emulated KL-10B DECSYSTEM-20 with Panda TOPS-20),
pdpplanet.com (a TOAD-1 with TOPS-20, a DECSYSTEM-10 2065 and a VAX
780) and cray-cyber.org (an emulated CDC Cyber plus a rotating
selection of historic super computers on weekends), but is there
anything else? Is anybody running classic versions of UNIX (UCB-era
BSD, AT&T-era System III/V, V6/V7, etc) Is anybody running a public
IBM system? What about various lesser-known systems? Given that most
people used these systems through remote terminals to begin with, a
public access system would seem to be an ideal way to experience them,
but how many of them are available in such a way?
Among our next projects at the PDPplanet site (which will be changing names
soon) are a PDP-8/e running either TSS/8 or MULTOS, and a PDP-11/45 running
Unix v7. We will announce their availability here as well as other well-
known fora for vintage/classic computing.
Rich Alderson
--------------Reply:
Well, I've had a Cromemco running Cromix with two ports on the Internet a few
times just as a proof of concept, and could put UNIX V or V.2 on it as well I
suppose, but I thought there are already UNIX systems out there and Cromix
would actually be more interesting; yeah, that's how they were used all right;
I still have a few of the 1200bd modems...;-)
I've only got dial-up access for it which makes it a little awkward, so I've been
trying to talk some fellow Cromemco owners with hi-speed to put one up as a
BBS system, but no takers so far...
Unfortunately Howard Harte (who's done amazing stuff with the SIMH emulator)
hasn't quite got a Cromix emulation finished. How would you tell the difference?
Sort of the modern Turing Test: is it the real machine or an emulation...
mike