8 May
2012
8 May
'12
8:27 p.m.
More photos from VCF East 8
http://vintagecomputer.net/browse_thread.cfm?id=466
Here is a link to the session materials Kelly L and I used for our
workshop, Introduction to Vintage Software Restoration.
http://vintagecomputer.net/browse_thread.cfm?id=467
8 May
8 May
10:08 p.m.
On Tue, May 8, 2012 at 11:27 PM, B Degnan <billdeg at degnanco.com> wrote:
More photos from VCF East 8
http://vintagecomputer.net/browse_thread.cfm?id=466
You wrote:
"Mike Ross' exhibit consisted of a PDP 11/05 used to interface with
a PDP 15, in two racks. He demonstrated restoration techniques for
attendees. I am not sure exactly what you call this console, there is
no "PDP 15" on the panel, but I assume it's some kind of I/O device
that complements the (not pictured) PDP 11/05 used to presumably
bootstrap this thing."
That _is_ the PDP-15 front panel - if you look, there are 18 data bits.
The PDP-15 CPU was the large spread of M-series cards on the
backplane above this front panel. Its memory was in a black box below
(and not there for much of the weekend). The PDP-11/05 is self-contained
and does the same job as the PDP-11/03 in a VAX-11/780 or the PDP-11
in various models of PDP-10. In each case, the PDP-11 boots from its
own ROMs to start up enough code to feed the larger processor. In the
case of the VAX-11/780, the PDP-11/03 has one RX01 floppy drive. I
don't know what this PDP-11 uses, but there must be some local mass
storage that's part of the scheme.
Many I/O devices of the day did have blinkenlights indicators (usually installed
at the top of the rack), but not this many control switches.
-ethan
9 May
9 May
5:33 a.m.
One note on the PDP-11/03 booting the VAX-11/780, the PDP-11/03 first loads the microcode
into the VAX-11/780, thereby defining the machine's higher level of operating code,
then
a bootstrap to load from a particular hard disk or tape is run. On most PDP-11s, the
microcode
is stored in ROMs or is hard wired.
--tom
On 5/9/12 12:08 AM, Ethan Dicks wrote:
On Tue, May 8, 2012 at 11:27 PM, B Degnan <billdeg
at degnanco.com> wrote:
More photos from VCF East 8
http://vintagecomputer.net/browse_thread.cfm?id=466
You wrote:
"Mike Ross' exhibit consisted of a PDP 11/05 used to interface with
a PDP 15, in two racks. He demonstrated restoration techniques for
attendees. I am not sure exactly what you call this console, there is
no "PDP 15" on the panel, but I assume it's some kind of I/O device
that complements the (not pictured) PDP 11/05 used to presumably
bootstrap this thing."
That _is_ the PDP-15 front panel - if you look, there are 18 data bits.
The PDP-15 CPU was the large spread of M-series cards on the
backplane above this front panel. Its memory was in a black box below
(and not there for much of the weekend). The PDP-11/05 is self-contained
and does the same job as the PDP-11/03 in a VAX-11/780 or the PDP-11
in various models of PDP-10. In each case, the PDP-11 boots from its
own ROMs to start up enough code to feed the larger processor. In the
case of the VAX-11/780, the PDP-11/03 has one RX01 floppy drive. I
don't know what this PDP-11 uses, but there must be some local mass
storage that's part of the scheme.
Many I/O devices of the day did have blinkenlights indicators (usually installed
at the top of the rack), but not this many control switches.
-ethan
9:04 a.m.
I was told the load from hard disk was page fault the swapped the desired
data back into memory.
Michael Holley
-----Original Message-----
From: cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org [mailto:cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org]
On Behalf Of Tom Uban
Sent: Wednesday, May 09, 2012 5:33 AM
To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts
Subject: Re: More photos from VCF East 8
One note on the PDP-11/03 booting the VAX-11/780, the PDP-11/03 first loads
the microcode into the VAX-11/780, thereby defining the machine's higher
level of operating code, then a bootstrap to load from a particular hard
disk or tape is run. On most PDP-11s, the microcode is stored in ROMs or is
hard wired.
--tom
On 5/9/12 12:08 AM, Ethan Dicks wrote:
On Tue, May 8, 2012 at 11:27 PM, B Degnan <billdeg
at degnanco.com> wrote:
More photos from VCF East 8
http://vintagecomputer.net/browse_thread.cfm?id=466
You wrote:
"Mike Ross' exhibit consisted of a PDP 11/05 used to interface with
a PDP 15, in two racks. He demonstrated restoration techniques for
attendees. I am not sure exactly what you call this console, there is
no "PDP 15" on the panel, but I assume it's some kind of I/O device
that complements the (not pictured) PDP 11/05 used to presumably
bootstrap this thing."
That _is_ the PDP-15 front panel - if you look, there are 18 data bits.
The PDP-15 CPU was the large spread of M-series cards on the backplane
above this front panel. Its memory was in a black box below (and not
there for much of the weekend). The PDP-11/05 is self-contained and
does the same job as the PDP-11/03 in a VAX-11/780 or the PDP-11 in
various models of PDP-10. In each case, the PDP-11 boots from its own
ROMs to start up enough code to feed the larger processor. In the
case of the VAX-11/780, the PDP-11/03 has one RX01 floppy drive. I
don't know what this PDP-11 uses, but there must be some local mass
storage that's part of the scheme.
Many I/O devices of the day did have blinkenlights indicators (usually
installed at the top of the rack), but not this many control switches.
-ethan
10:15 a.m.
Tom Uban wrote:
One note on the PDP-11/03 booting the VAX-11/780, the
PDP-11/03 first loads the microcode
into the VAX-11/780, thereby defining the machine's higher level of operating code,
then
a bootstrap to load from a particular hard disk or tape is run.
On an 11/780, the only microcode loaded by the 11/03 is patches or
diagnostics. The main microcode is in bipolar PROMs. There is only a
very small amount of microcode RAM in an 11/780, not enough to hold the
entire microcode.
The 11/785 uses RAM for the entire microcode, so it works as you described.
9:07 a.m.
Hi,
The '11/05 -- when used to boot; it doesn't have to be used in the
boot process -- is used to connect RK05s to the PDP-15.
I can give a whole long spiel as to what the '11 is actually used for,
but I'd just be echoing information garnered from documentation on
BitSavers. Plus, I believe that Mr. Ross would quite possibly know
much more than I.
Cheers,
Christian
On 9 May 2012 01:08, Ethan Dicks <ethan.dicks at gmail.com> wrote:
On Tue, May 8, 2012 at 11:27 PM, B Degnan <billdeg
at degnanco.com> wrote:
More photos from VCF East 8
http://vintagecomputer.net/browse_thread.cfm?id=466
You wrote:
?"Mike Ross' exhibit consisted of a PDP 11/05 used to interface with
?a PDP 15, in two racks. He demonstrated restoration techniques for
?attendees. I am not sure exactly what you call this console, there is
?no "PDP 15" on the panel, but I assume it's some kind of I/O device
?that complements the (not pictured) PDP 11/05 used to presumably
?bootstrap this thing."
That _is_ the PDP-15 front panel - if you look, there are 18 data bits.
The PDP-15 CPU was the large spread of M-series cards on the
backplane above this front panel. ?Its memory was in a black box below
(and not there for much of the weekend). ?The PDP-11/05 is self-contained
and does the same job as the PDP-11/03 in a VAX-11/780 or the PDP-11
in various models of PDP-10. ?In each case, the PDP-11 boots from its
own ROMs to start up enough code to feed the larger processor. ?In the
case of the VAX-11/780, the PDP-11/03 has one RX01 floppy drive. ?I
don't know what this PDP-11 uses, but there must be some local mass
storage that's part of the scheme.
Many I/O devices of the day did have blinkenlights indicators (usually installed
at the top of the rack), but not this many control switches.
-ethan 
10:54 a.m.
From: Ethan Dicks
Sent: Tuesday, May 08, 2012 10:08 PM
On Tue, May 8, 2012 at 11:27 PM, B Degnan <billdeg at degnanco.com> wrote:
> More photos from VCF East 8
> http://vintagecomputer.net/browse_thread.cfm?id=466
You wrote:
"Mike Ross' exhibit consisted of a PDP
11/05 used to interface with
a PDP 15, in two racks. He demonstrated restoration techniques for
attendees. I am not sure exactly what you call this console, there is
no "PDP 15" on the panel, but I assume it's some kind of I/O device
that complements the (not pictured) PDP 11/05 used to presumably
bootstrap this thing."
That _is_ the PDP-15 front panel - if you look, there
are 18 data
bits. The PDP-15 CPU was the large spread of M-series cards on the
backplane above this front panel. Its memory was in a black box below
(and not there for much of the weekend). The PDP-11/05 is
self-contained and does the same job as the PDP-11/03 in a VAX-11/780
or the PDP-11 in various models of PDP-10. In each case, the PDP-11
boots from its own ROMs to start up enough code to feed the larger
processor. In the case of the VAX-11/780, the PDP-11/03 has one RX01
floppy drive. I don't know what this PDP-11 uses, but there must be
some local mass storage that's part of the scheme.
Only the KL-10 uses an 11/40 as a boot processor like the 11/03 in a
780. The KS-10 uses an 8080, and earlier models booted directly from
paper tape or DECtape; it's not clear to me yet whether a KI-10 could
boot directly from disk, but I tend to doubt it based on what I'm seeing
in ours.
Rich Alderson
Vintage Computing Sr. Systems Engineer
Vulcan, Inc.
505 5th Avenue S, Suite 900
Seattle, WA 98104
mailto:RichA at vulcan.com
mailto:RichA at LivingComputerMuseum.org
http://www.LivingComputerMuseum.org/
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participants (7)
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billdeg＠degnanco.com -
captainkirk359＠gmail.com -
eric＠brouhaha.com -
ethan.dicks＠gmail.com -
RichA＠vulcan.com -
swtpc6800＠comcast.net -
uban＠ubanproductions.com