26 Jul
2009
26 Jul
'09
4:44 p.m.
Hi folks,
I just stumbled across two RP02 and RP03 disk drives (2 RP02, 1 RP03) in
probably repairable condition.
We have all cables (power, "bus", "unit") needed to hook the beasts to
a
RP10 controller of a pdp10. Thinking of restoring and connecting them to
a Unibus pdp11.
The issues:
- No controller
- No media (RP02/03 use the same pack)
- No information
I currently don't even know if there's a special sector layout for
pdp10, pdp11 etc. (like with RK05 drives).
Or if there are any RP11 (or RP211?) controllers around.
Does someone know anything? Have documentation? Have a controller? Packs?
Does someone know anything about pack compatibilities? That could help a
lot! The packs seem to have 10 disks and two half disks (only one
surface used). I have not seen one.
Any hints welcome.
Best wishes,
Philipp :-)
27 Jul
27 Jul
9:43 a.m.
Philipp Hachtmann wrote:
Hi folks,
I just stumbled across two RP02 and RP03 disk drives (2 RP02, 1 RP03) in
probably repairable condition.
We have all cables (power, "bus", "unit") needed to hook the beasts
to a
RP10 controller of a pdp10. Thinking of restoring and connecting them to
a Unibus pdp11.
Very difficult. RP11C controllers are pretty uncommon.
The drives are standard IBM BUS/TAG interface, and are compatible with
2311-ish drives. 20 and 40mb.
I have the manuals for the drives, they were made by Memorex. I'll see about
getting them on line. The RP11 docs are already there under unibus. One of the
people involved with the Mass Storage SIG at CHM designed the RP02 (Tom Garner)
at Memorex.
10:07 a.m.
On Jul 27, 2009, at 9:43 AM, Al Kossow wrote:
Philipp Hachtmann wrote:
They're also large. They take 1/2 of an H960 rack and have *lots* of
flip chips.
TTFN - Guy
Hi folks,
I just stumbled across two RP02 and RP03 disk drives (2 RP02, 1
RP03) in probably repairable condition.
We have all cables (power, "bus", "unit") needed to hook the beasts
to a RP10 controller of a pdp10. Thinking of restoring and
connecting them to a Unibus pdp11.
Very difficult. RP11C controllers are pretty uncommon. 
10:15 a.m.
On Mon, 27 Jul 2009, Philipp Hachtmann wrote:
I just stumbled across two RP02 and RP03 disk drives
(2 RP02, 1 RP03) in
probably repairable condition.
We have all cables (power, "bus", "unit") needed to hook the beasts
to a RP10
controller of a pdp10. Thinking of restoring and connecting them to a Unibus
pdp11.
This isn't the answer you want to hear, but if these had been hooked up to
an RP10, wouldn't it make more sense to arrange for these drives to be used
on a PDP-10 rather than a PDP-11? Unless I'm mistaken the PDP-11 varient
are slightly more common. And yes, I'm saying this even though I *assume*
you do not have a PDP-10.
Zane
10:35 a.m.
From: Zane H. Healy
Sent: Monday, July 27, 2009 10:16 AM
On Mon, 27 Jul 2009, Philipp Hachtmann wrote:
> I just stumbled across two RP02 and RP03 disk
drives (2 RP02, 1 RP03) in
> probably repairable condition. We have all cables (power, "bus",
"unit")
> needed to hook the beasts to a RP10 controller of a pdp10. Thinking of
> restoring and connecting them to a Unibus pdp11.
This isn't the answer you want to hear, but if
these had been hooked up to
an RP10, wouldn't it make more sense to arrange for these drives to be used
on a PDP-10 rather than a PDP-11? Unless I'm mistaken the PDP-11 varient
are slightly more common. And yes, I'm saying this even though I *assume*
you do not have a PDP-10.
Since, so far as I know, there is only one person on the planet with RP10
controllers on PDP-10 systems, and those are currently warehoused with no
plans to do anything with them until he retires (in roughly 15 years), the
need to hook these drives to a PDP-10 is vanishingly small.
Rich Alderson
Vintage Computing Server Engineer
Vulcan, Inc.
505 5th Avenue S, Suite 900
Seattle, WA 98104
mailto:RichA at vulcan.com
(206) 342-2239
(206) 465-2916 cell
http://www.pdpplanet.org/
29 Jul
29 Jul
4:56 p.m.
Hi everybody,
thanks for your replies!
> This isn't the answer you want to hear, but if
these had been hooked up to
> an RP10, wouldn't it make more sense to arrange for these drives to be used
> on a PDP-10 rather than a PDP-11?
Yes, it would. But I did NOT have the space
to take the pdp10. I helped to load most of it into two
trucks last saturday....
Unless I'm mistaken the PDP-11 varient
> are slightly more common. And yes, I'm saying this even though I *assume*
> you do not have a PDP-10.
No. And I cannot have one. Too big. But my computer
collectors' society now has three drives.
I could give them to the people who took the pdp10 - but I doubt that they will accept
them.. They
got several other drives as well.
Since, so far as I know, there is only one person on
the planet with RP10
controllers on PDP-10 systems, and those are currently warehoused with no
plans to do anything with them until he retires (in roughly 15 years), the
need to hook these drives to a PDP-10 is vanishingly small.
So now you know of
another one. There is at least one of those controllers here in Germany. Probably
two. Because we found two complete sets of cables.
They're also large. They take 1/2 of an H960 rack
and have *lots* of flip chips.
Yes, they are. But probably still around somewhere. I
think that it's easier to get such a
controller than get the drives... With the controller, we could set up the original Unix
configuration, I've been told.
Which disk drives should I take else? Just scrap the RP02/02 machines? They look so nice!
And
they're impressive! Would be a pity.....
Very difficult. RP11C controllers are pretty uncommon.
:-(
But there IS some hope....!
If they're more uncommon than RS64 fixed head disks, there is even more hope :)
The drives are standard IBM BUS/TAG interface, and are
compatible with
2311-ish drives. 20 and 40mb.
As you said in your next posting... They're not.
Ok. I don't know either of the interfaces.
The drives have a big interconnected bus and an individual unit cable. I have all the
cables (unit,
bus, power).
I "only" need the controller.
I have the manuals for the drives, they were made by
Memorex. I'll see about
getting them on line. The RP11 docs are already there under unibus. One of the
people involved with the Mass Storage SIG at CHM designed the RP02 (Tom Garner)
at Memorex.
Hm, docs for the drives would be a good starting point.
And if everything fails, I will think of building a controller by means of modern
microelectronics
(i.e. programmable logic). Would be not so nice, but better than scrapping the drives...!
Who is corestore? He has a picture of an RP11 controller on his website. Perhaps he
doesn't need it
anymore?
Best wishes,
Philipp
--
http://www.hachti.de
11:19 a.m.
Christian Corti wrote:
On Wed, 29 Jul 2009, Al Kossow wrote:
Has anyone been in contact with the museum in Aachen about their
collection? (http://www.aachen.de/EN/ts/140_museums/140_15.html)
I suspect they may have a KA10 CPU and memory. I have a theory that what was
in Dortmund may have been from downsizing the Aachen holdings, and everything
KA10, from a German museum that was downsizing?
Yes...
I wish our museum had the space to take all the goodies :-( But we are
limited to about 100 m^2 and could easily use ten times of that.
from a KA10 except the CPU and memory were there.
12:02 a.m.
On Thu, 30 Jul 2009 01:56:14 +0200
Philipp Hachtmann <hachti at hachti.de> wrote:
I could give them to the people who took the pdp10
A PDP-10 in Germany? Details please!
--
tsch??,
Jochen
Homepage: http://www.unixag-kl.fh-kl.de/~jkunz/
5624
days inactive
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11 comments
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participants (8)
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aek＠bitsavers.org -
bfranchuk＠jetnet.ab.ca -
cc＠informatik.uni-stuttgart.de -
ggs＠shiresoft.com -
hachti＠hachti.de -
healyzh＠aracnet.com -
jkunz＠unixag-kl.fh-kl.de -
RichA＠vulcan.com