On Thu, Mar 20, 2008 at 05:43:11AM +0100, Philipp Hachtmann wrote:
Hi folks,
I want to get a Plessey PMDD/8b get to work on a PDP-8/e. It is not my
system and I currently don't have access to it.
So I would be very lucky to get every piece of information about the
drive. I think it has a cartdridge. That's where my knowledge ends.
And I know that there's no documentation with the machine. So I need the
luck that somebody can help me out.
Is that drive RK05 compatible and works with RK8-E?
Unfortunately, I don't have any information on Plessey drives.
Could I hook a RK05 from a 11/23 to an RK8-E
controller? Or are there
differences?
No change to the drive should be required. You will, however, need
a 16-sector RK05 pack to use it with an RK8E (PDP-11s use 12-sector
packs - the same number of bits around the track, just chopped up
differently).
As for cables, The RK8E uses a similar cable arrangement
to the RKV11D, which is presumably what you have on your 11/23.
There might be a _slight_ difference with the paddle card (a
jumper or one IC... I can't remember off the top of my head), but
IIRC, the underlying card and its cables is identical between
the RKV11D and the RK8E.
If your RK8E already has cables, then you are set - just pull out
one paddle card and install the other in the same place.
-ethan
--
Ethan Dicks, A-333-S Current South Pole Weather at 20-Mar-2008 at 05:00 Z
South Pole Station
PSC 468 Box 400 Temp -69.9 F (-56.6 C) Windchill -106.6 F (-77.0 C)
APO AP 96598 Wind 11.3 kts Grid 71 Barometer 685.2 mb (10433 ft)
Ethan.Dicks at
usap.gov http://penguincentral.com/penguincentral.html