7 Apr
2013
7 Apr
'13
1:32 a.m.
allison <ajp166 at verizon.net> wrote:
The H9275 can be fitted, the standard connecting
cables may or may not
match up but can be had made easily.
I've even put the backplane from the BA32 in a BA11. The form caxtor is
very standardized though the interconnect for power varies with molex or
terminal barrier strips being used.
Ah, good data point to have if I ever get into
the situation for a similar operation.
Yes, some of the backplanes and the cpu board have
jumpesr that need to
be correct and matching.
Alas I don't have any DEC Processor and Peripherals Handbook covering QBUS in dead
tree format, just UNIBUS stuff which is of about zilch use to me in this case, but I got
myself the BA11-N (which includes details on the backplane) and KDF11-BA manuals from
bitsavers. Yes, I also already perused them to a certain extent, and yes, I was aware of
the jumper issue (which is why I even _mentioned_ it. Duh.)
I have full sets spanning the years and it fills about
5 ft (1.5M) of
linear shelf space. I consider
them as more important than the hardware. While much of it is on the
net I find it harder to
scan for a specific item like the default jumpers for DLV11J. The books
have a bit of wear
from actual use.
Not having worked for DEC and being a bit younger than most of the hardware in question,
I'm not that lucky. I could get myself some doubles that were culled from a university
collection ('76 peripherals manual, 11/45 and 11/60 processor manuals...) which
unfortunately do not cover the era and range of hardware I'm dealing with here.
[boot rom / mass storage issues]
I'm not yet
holding the CPU card in question in my hands so I don't know the exact variety.
I have RL01 (three) and RL02 drives (one) which I would like to use with this system, as
they seem appropriate for the era.
The only common card set that depends on CD is RL11
The two board
RL01/02 controller
and it's only 18bit capable, if you working with 22bit system (fully
populated with ram)
then you need the RLV21 which is a single quad board and works in all
backplanes...
oh and also RL02 drives, a 40" rack minimum, plus a good back!
...not to
mention at least one good _pack_, which is (for the RL01) what I'm missing.
In the end the whole Q22 this is only an issue when
you exceed 256Kbytes
of memory
as the Q22 allowed the MMU to reach 4MB of ram.
I will also be provided with a 512kW MOS memory board, so I will need 22-bit addressing to
take full advantage of that, and therefore the (22-bit clean) RLV_12_ single-board
controller. So no CD lanes needed here.
PPS oh, I have at least two that have all slots
filled! Its way to easy
to plug in IO.
For example RLV21 quad width, RQDX3 dual, TKQ50 (dual)
TK50,
RXV21 (dual) RX02 drive controller, DZV11 serial IO(quad),
LPV11 parallel printer (dual), DEQNA (dual),
full 4mb memory (3 quad boards). don't forget the CPU,
11/23B+ also a quad board.
Thats 16 slots filled plus two grant cards total 18
making a full box.
The grant cards allow for optimal board placement and are required to
keep the DMA and interrupt vector chain complete.
Was it indeed usual to build such large configurations based on an 11/23 back then?
TQK50, DEQNA and RQDX3 at least sound sound a bit anachronistic to me, there surely must
have been newer and more powerful processors out at the time those became available?
I think I'll have a rather minimal system (KDF11-B, 512kW RAM, quad SLU, RLV12 + one
or drives) for now, not making my first foray into pdp technology more complicated than
necessary.
Arno