22 Mar
2005
22 Mar
'05
5:32 p.m.
I'd like to include a PDP in my collection, but
not sure what
to go for? My requirements would be
1) It has to be a 70's design
2) It needs to be reasonably compact
3) I'd like to run something 'unix like'
with a c compiler as an option.
4) My budget is not huge <$1000
Any recommendations?
I'd vote for the 11/23, mostly because it was the last of the 70's
(1979), they were produced in large numbers and are compact. Most were
built with the (then) brand-new RL02 drives. The design continued for
many years and lots of DEC and non-DEC boards are available for neat
things like MFM drives large ammounts of memory.
I have one I got for free, exactly as pictured here with VT101 and LA36
DecWriter-II printing terminal...
http://research.microsoft.com/~gbell/Digital/timeline/1979-2.htm
The link says Microsoft, but it's Gordon Bells page.
22 Mar
22 Mar
6:42 p.m.
Well.. if you're going to go QBUS LSI - why not go all the way and
get a usable machine!? forget a low end 11/23 with only 128Kw
of ram and for for an 11/73 (or the like) 4 megs ram. a nice small
enclosure,
can use RQD series controllers and MFM (yuck) drives, KDA50 and DSSI, or
better yet SCSI disks. You can get a DELQA ether card, a serial mux
and you'll have a modernish unix with TCP/IP & a real PDP11 underneath,
without it taking 3KWatts to to run or weigh a ton! ... within your 1K
budget!
A good place to start might be to pick up a MVII and decserver500 (11/53)
Else, a good blinkenlights machine will run you between $600-1200 without
much disk...
-h
somebody wrote:
Any
recommendations?
I'd vote for the 11/23, mostly because it was the last of the 70's
(1979), they were produced in large numbers and are compact. Most were
built with the (then) brand-new RL02 drives. The design continued for
many years and lots of DEC and non-DEC boards are available for neat
things like MFM drives large ammounts of memory.
I have one I got for free, exactly as pictured here with VT101 and LA36
DecWriter-II printing terminal...
http://research.microsoft.com/~gbell/Digital/timeline/1979-2.htm
The link says Microsoft, but it's Gordon Bells page. 
8:08 p.m.
I came in to the thread late but it looks like Jerome gets the prize.
11/23: 1979. 11/73: 1984
I believe the poster said compact so the 11/34 could be too
large for his requirements but it is so legendary that it probably
deserves special consideration, when it has the programmers
panel it gets to be pretty cool to show. 1976 vintage. Staying
with the 11/23 has the advantage of having an allowably small
disk drive be within period.
Approximate weights: 11/23 with drive, about 100 lbs.
11/34: 110 lbs plus 110 lbs for disk, give or take.
Depends on what you mean by compact. Just put the '34 in two boxes.
John A.
And I've lifted them all.
9:17 p.m.
epay's got a lovely 11/34(prob a or c) two rack system going for 880$
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=1247&item=51…
looks like tektronix test system - the cpu box looks fully loaded
possibly with the fp11 and or 11/34c cache board, 2RLs and
a DEC 9 track tape drive, controllers, semi ram., two short racks.
you should be able to squeeze these into a single tall rack if you're
careful.
Should run Unix V7 quite nicely!
h
7531
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7531
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3 comments
3 participants
participants (3)
-
allain＠panix.com -
h.wolter＠sympatico.ca -
James＠jdfogg.com