On Sat, Apr 06, 2013 at 11:36:09PM -0500, Jon Elson wrote:
We had a 500 MB drive that fits the description,
MASSBus
only, and just a couple buttons on the front.
I'll bet you mean the RP07. I had a hazy recollection that it was built
by Sperry but maybe that story got garbled -- Burroughs and Sperry must
have been engaged by then so what's the difference. 516 MB is the claimed
capacity IIRC. Wasn't there a keypad under the lid? Fancy...
I thought RP was for removable
disk packs, and the RM was for fixed HDAs.
That would make sense. So, no. RM was just the later generation, using
almost (but naturally not quite) generic SMD drives and an "RM adapter"
which was almost (but naturally not quite) the same between all models,
to make the jump from very-nearly-SMD to Massbus. The RM80 was indeed fixed
(same HDA as the RA80, and the R80 in a VAX-11/730), but the rest (RM02/03/05)
were slightly hacked CDC 9762/9766 pack drives. IIRC the RP07 tended to
live on the RMxx Massbus instead of the RPxx one, so it got a DR: device
name instead of a DB: like the earlier RP0x drives (on PDP-11s anyway).
Insanity...
John Wilson
D Bit