10 Mar
2010
10 Mar
'10
10:13 p.m.
On Wed, 10 Mar 2010, Rob Jarratt wrote:
There was a thread recently on the comp.sys.dec
newsgroup which ended up
with the suggestion from David Riley that he would be prepared to build an
FPGA-based board with a QBUS interface on one side and an SD interface on
the other which anyone could then program to emulate any disk/controller
they like. I have been in touch with him to see how much interest he has
had, because he needs a minimum number of about 10 to make it viable, but so
far there has only been me and one other person showing an interest. David
reckons they would come to a little over $200 each (possibly less if there
is more interest). David is not yet on cctalk so he agreed to let me
cross-post this to cctalk on his behalf, but I have cc'd him so you can
reply direct.
Regards
Rob
I think it would be useful to include the RD51 and RD52 in the list of
supported drives. I believe it is MicroRSTS/E which expects something like
an RD51 or RD52 for a system disk.
Additionally would such a board support hardware partitioning? Something
like the old Webster WQESD/04 EDSI boards where you can partition a drive
into multiple drives that appear to be seperate physical drives to the OS?
This is especially useful when running multiple OS's on the same hardware.
This is something I would definitely be interested in, especially if the
price is right.
Another thought is, would it be possible to have it include a system clock
on the same board?
Zane
10 Mar
10 Mar
10:39 p.m.
On Wed, Mar 10, 2010 at 5:13 PM, Zane H. Healy <healyzh at aracnet.com> wrote:
I think it would be useful to include the RD51 and
RD52 in the list of
supported drives. ?I believe it is MicroRSTS/E which expects something like
an RD51 or RD52 for a system disk.
And perhaps Venix and POS might not handle RD32s and RD53s? What
about MicroVMS 1.0? For that matter, I think that might bring into
question RQDX1 vs RQDX3 compatibility. It's been long enough that I'm
a bit fuzzy on the differences from an OS driver standpoint (I
remember well enough the differences in drive support and low-level
formats).
I would not consider lack of RD51 and RD52 support to be a
deal-breaker, but if one is going to make a generic MSCP Q-bus SSD
controller, one might as well permit 5MB and 10MB slices as well as
73MB and 154MB slices (since at the OS level, it eventually boils down
(mostly) to disks of N-blocks-long).
At $200, I'd consider one. At a lower price, I'd consider multiples.
-ethan
11 p.m.
On Wed, 10 Mar 2010, Ethan Dicks wrote:
And perhaps Venix and POS might not handle RD32s and
RD53s? What
about MicroVMS 1.0? For that matter, I think that might bring into
question RQDX1 vs RQDX3 compatibility. It's been long enough that I'm
a bit fuzzy on the differences from an OS driver standpoint (I
remember well enough the differences in drive support and low-level
formats).
Good point, I hadn't thought about RQDX1 vs. RQDX3 issues. By POS you mean
P/OS don't you? Which only runs on the DEC Pro's? Or am I
missing/forgetting something here?
I would not consider lack of RD51 and RD52 support to
be a
deal-breaker, but if one is going to make a generic MSCP Q-bus SSD
controller, one might as well permit 5MB and 10MB slices as well as
73MB and 154MB slices (since at the OS level, it eventually boils down
(mostly) to disks of N-blocks-long).
I wouldn't consider a lack of RD51 and RD52 support to be a deal-breaker
either, simply a nice to have. My key concern is that I be able to put one
of these in my /73 and boot RSTS/E, RSX-11M/M+, or RT-11 without any issues,
and ideally without needing to swap CF cards. Currently my main two Q-Bus
PDP-11's use removable SCSI Hard Drives than can be swapped between the two.
In the case of RT-11, the same drive can be used on my PDP-11/44.
At $200, I'd consider one. At a lower price,
I'd consider multiples.
Truthfully if I could afford it, I probably would as well. I might be
looking into getting rid of a majority of my Classic Hardware, but this
touches on area's where I'm planning on staying semi-active.
Zane
11 Mar
11 Mar
5:50 a.m.
On Wed, Mar 10, 2010 at 6:00 PM, Zane H. Healy <healyzh at aracnet.com> wrote:
?By POS you mean
P/OS don't you? ?Which only runs on the DEC Pro's? ?Or am I
missing/forgetting something here?
No. You are correct - I was thinking of all the places that RD51s and
RD52s get, not RQDX1s, -2s, and 3s. My bad.
I wouldn't consider a lack of RD51 and RD52
support to be a deal-breaker
either, simply a nice to have. ?My key concern is that I be able to put one
of these in my /73 and boot RSTS/E, RSX-11M/M+, or RT-11 without any issues,
and ideally without needing to swap CF cards. ?Currently my main two Q-Bus
PDP-11's use removable SCSI Hard Drives than can be swapped between the two.
In the case of RT-11, the same drive can be used on my PDP-11/44.
That sounds really handy. I have a couple of Qbus SCSI cards I have
yet to test, but I have never run across a Unibus SCSI controller so
cheap that it followed me home.
I'm kinda hosed for Unibus storage except UDA50s and RL11s. I do have
one or maybe two SMD or ESDI controllers (have to check the models),
but I'm thin on SMD drives.
RL02s are great to a point, but when you want 50-60MB, not
particularly practical.
-ethan
5413
days inactive
5414
days old
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