28 Jan
2007
28 Jan
'07
8:11 p.m.
I believe some of the -11 operating systems would do "interesting" things
with the console lights while they were idle. Could somebody describe the
patterns used?
Thanks,
Bob Armstrong
28 Jan
28 Jan
8:21 p.m.
Robert Armstrong wrote:
I believe some of the -11 operating systems would do
"interesting" things
with the console lights while they were idle. Could somebody describe the
patterns used?
BSD 2.11 uses a set of rotating lights. I can't remember the number of
"on" lights but there's more than 1 (6 or 8?).
--
TTFN - Guy
29 Jan
29 Jan
12:58 a.m.
Hi,
Guy Sotomayor said:
Robert Armstrong wrote:
As does RSTS/E, 6 lights, I think.
--
Cheers,
Stan Barr stanb at dial.pipex.com
The future was never like this!
I believe some of the -11 operating systems
would do "interesting" things
with the console lights while they were idle. Could somebody describe the
patterns used?
BSD 2.11 uses a set of rotating lights. I can't remember the number of
"on" lights but there's more than 1 (6 or 8?). 
3:16 a.m.
RT11 would run one led in from the left side and one from the right side
until they collided in the middle and kind of bounced off each other. RSX,
IIRC did something like the old Battlestar Galactica Cylon or Knight Rider
Kitt light pattern going left to right.
Bill
On 1/29/07, Stan Barr <stanb at dial.pipex.com> wrote:
Hi,
Guy Sotomayor said:
As does RSTS/E, 6 lights, I think.
--
Cheers,
Stan Barr stanb at dial.pipex.com
The future was never like this!
Robert Armstrong wrote:
> I believe some of the -11 operating systems would do "interesting"
things
> with the console lights while they were
idle. Could somebody describe
the
patterns
used?
BSD 2.11 uses a set of rotating lights. I can't remember the number of
"on" lights but there's more than 1 (6 or 8?). 
2:56 p.m.
RT11 would run one led in from the left side and one from the right side
until they collided in the middle and kind of bounced off each other. RSX,
The RT11 pattern I rememebr was something like (I may have got the
direction wrong)
1111111111111111
0111111111111111
0011111111111111
0111111111111110
1111111111111100
1111111111111000
0111111111111100
0011111111111110
0001111111111111
0000111111111111
And so on, with the colum of lit bulbs getting shorter by one every time
it hit an end, until there was just one lamp on, When that got to the
appropriate end, the pattern restarted with all 16 lamps on.
This only worked on processors with a lamp register (like the 11/45 and
11/70). It was farily easiy to find the appropriate address in the source
code, change it to point to a 'spare' parallel' port (DR11K or
something), and then connect that to flashing lights. Made a _really_
expensive Newtonsday decoration...
-tony
8:10 a.m.
Bob,
At 8:11 PM -0800 1/28/07, Robert Armstrong wrote:
I believe some of the -11 operating systems would do
"interesting" things
with the console lights while they were idle. Could somebody describe the
patterns used?
There is some explanation, code, and pointers here:
<http://dundas-mac.caltech.edu/~dundas/retro/#lights>
John
30 Jan
30 Jan
1:01 p.m.
I believe some of the -11 operating systems would do
"interesting" things
with the console lights while they were idle. Could somebody describe the
patterns used?
I seem to recall RSX had a pattern something like
1000000000000001
1100000000000011
1110000000000111
1111000000001111
0111100000011110
0011110000111100
0001111001111000
0000111111110000
...
with the groups of four "on" lights moving through each other. RSTS (c.
1980) simply rotated half a dozen or so "on" lights. Others have described
RT11's pattern. I never saw a light pattern on an '11 running Unix -
perhaps they were never idle? Was the concept of the idle-loop lightshow
unique to the PDP-11, or did other systems with data lights implement them?
In high school I had a Sol-20, and I missed the "blinkenlights" so much
that I cut away a strip of metal in the top of the case (near where the
"Processor Technology" logo was) and mounted a set of LEDs on perfboard
behind it. I sawed off the edge connector to a S-100 prototyping card and
put it in the card extender slot at the top of the SOL's card cage, and ran
wires from there to the perfboard. By changing the keyboard input loop to
repeatedly access various addresses, I was able to get a reasonable
emulation of the PDP-11 lightshow in the address lights.
Decades later, I finally have a real '11 console to run the lightshows!
http://www.saccade.com/writing/projects/PDP11/PDP-11.html
Cheers,
jp
5:28 p.m.
In 1967, I attended a high school engineering summer program at Northwestern
University. On a tour of the observatory, we saw a small DEC computer, with
a cassette tape recorder attached to it as the tape drive, that was used to
control the telescope. The person giving the tour ran a program that
intentionally caused a divide-by-zero state. The lights on the from panel
started flashing so fast that they all stayed at a low glow until he reset
the computer.
From: "J. Peterson" <pdp11 at
saccade.com>
Reply-To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic
Posts"<cctalk at classiccmp.org>
To: "General Discussion: On-Topic Posts Only" <cctech at classiccmp.org>
Subject: Re: Null job light patterns?
Date: Tue, 30 Jan 2007 13:01:44 -0800
_________________________________________________________________
I believe some of the -11 operating systems
would do "interesting"
things
with the console lights while they were idle. Could somebody describe the
patterns used?
I seem to recall RSX had a pattern something like
1000000000000001
1100000000000011
1110000000000111
1111000000001111
0111100000011110
0011110000111100
0001111001111000
0000111111110000
...
with the groups of four "on" lights moving through each other. RSTS (c.
1980) simply rotated half a dozen or so "on" lights. Others have described
RT11's pattern. I never saw a light pattern on an '11 running Unix -
perhaps they were never idle? Was the concept of the idle-loop lightshow
unique to the PDP-11, or did other systems with data lights implement them?
In high school I had a Sol-20, and I missed the "blinkenlights" so much
that I cut away a strip of metal in the top of the case (near where the
"Processor Technology" logo was) and mounted a set of LEDs on perfboard
behind it. I sawed off the edge connector to a S-100 prototyping card and
put it in the card extender slot at the top of the SOL's card cage, and ran
wires from there to the perfboard. By changing the keyboard input loop to
repeatedly access various addresses, I was able to get a reasonable
emulation of the PDP-11 lightshow in the address lights.
Decades later, I finally have a real '11 console to run the lightshows!
http://www.saccade.com/writing/projects/PDP11/PDP-11.html
Cheers,
jp
From predictions to trailers, check out the MSN
Entertainment Guide to the
Academy Awards?
http://movies.msn.com/movies/oscars2007/?icid=ncoscartagline1
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7 comments
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ard＠p850ug1.demon.co.uk -
bob＠jfcl.com -
dundas＠caltech.edu -
ggs＠shiresoft.com -
pdp11＠saccade.com -
pechter＠gmail.com -
r_a_feldman＠hotmail.com -
stanb＠dial.pipex.com