10 Sep
2007
10 Sep
'07
12:54 p.m.
On 9/9/07, Allison <ajp166 at bellatlantic.net> wrote:
One day I plan to get a T11 up and running wtih RT but
with non-DEC
drivers for terminal and storage as a small toteable -11.
I'd like to hear more about this, either on-list, if you feel your
ideas are fleshed out enough to share widely, or off-list, if you are
not as far along with the creative process.
Ever since I had a PDT-11 (and let it go to another collector, sadly
for me), I've wanted a portable PDP-11. It might or might not be easy
(read inexpensive ;-) to implement an 80x24 LCD, some form of 40x25
isn't expensive at all since it only takes a 320x200 mono LCD panel.
Of course, one could just have serial out from the basic PDP-11
design, then worry about a portable display as a secondary project.
As for storage, obviously some flavor of FLASH is great for most
things. CF is easy to interface to, and CF cards 1GB and smaller are
quite inexpensive. MMC/SD are also inexpensive and even easier to
interface to, with a bit more work on the driver side to man the SPI
interface.
While textual LCDs are cheaper and easier to interface to, the largest
one I've seen is 4x40. A graphical LCD panel with a SED1335 or t6963
of a size of 640x200 would be perfect for 80x25, and, since the common
graphical LCD controllers are well documented, not difficult to talk
to. One could either attach the graphical display right to the T-11
bus as a peripheral and do all the work in PDP-11 software, or hang a
microcontroller off of the T-11 via serial, and write some
microcontroller firmware to turn the LCD into an ANSI terminal.
Back to the T-11, though, if I recall its capabilities correctly, it
doesn't have an MMU, and it would be difficult, if not impractical, to
design an external one that resembles, say, the MMU on an 11/23... so
that means RT-11SJ monitor only, correct? (or would FB be possible?)
There's lots of software out there that runs in 56K or less, so I
don't see that as a fatal flaw.
So, Allison, does any of this sound like what you had in mind, or am I
going off in an entirely different direction?
-ethan
10 Sep
10 Sep
1:37 p.m.
Ethan Dicks wrote:
Back to the T-11, though, if I recall its capabilities
correctly, it
doesn't have an MMU, and it would be difficult, if not impractical, to
design an external one that resembles, say, the MMU on an 11/23... so
that means RT-11SJ monitor only, correct? (or would FB be possible?)
There's lots of software out there that runs in 56K or less, so I
don't see that as a fatal flaw.
Why not just use the J-11, and have it all ?
1:43 p.m.
On 9/10/07, e.stiebler <emu at e-bbes.com> wrote:
Ethan Dicks wrote:
I would think that for one thing, T-11 chips are much easier to find
than J-11 chips - DEC used the T-11 in a variety of peripheral cards
and terminals, and such. I personally probably have half-a-dozen T-11
chips, and two J-11 chips (one Pro380 and one KDJ11 board).
If course, if a project were to erupt that was some form of portable
J-11 design w/1MB or more of SRAM and some local mass storage, I would
certainly strongly consider building one, even if I had to borrow a
J-11 chip from one of my two sources.
-ethan
Back to the T-11, though, if I recall its
capabilities correctly, it
doesn't have an MMU, and it would be difficult, if not impractical, to
design an external one that resembles, say, the MMU on an 11/23... so
that means RT-11SJ monitor only, correct? (or would FB be possible?)
There's lots of software out there that runs in 56K or less, so I
don't see that as a fatal flaw.
Why not just use the J-11, and have it all ?
2:18 p.m.
Ethan Dicks wrote:
If course, if a project were to erupt that was some
form of portable
J-11 design w/1MB or more of SRAM and some local mass storage, I would
certainly strongly consider building one, even if I had to borrow a
J-11 chip from one of my two sources.
But the j-11 are alos very easy to get, as a lot 11/73 boards are
showing even on ebay for dirt cheap. And a SBC-11-+++ would be also a
nice project, getting SCSI or IDE, 4 MBytes of ram, 100 mbit ethernet, ...
2:42 p.m.
e.stiebler wrote:
But the j-11 are alos very easy to get, as a lot 11/73
boards are
showing even on ebay for dirt cheap. And a SBC-11-+++ would be also a
nice project, getting SCSI or IDE, 4 MBytes of ram, 100 mbit ethernet, ...
How about a nice PDP-11 for the people that never haver used a PDP-11.
As for ebay they start cheap ... what about the last second of bidding.
I have dial up -- does this mean I have already lost my bid since they
are sitting on a router staight to ebay?
Ben alias woodelf
2:44 p.m.
Ethan Dicks wrote:
On 9/10/07, e.stiebler <emu at e-bbes.com>
wrote:
I would think that for one thing, T-11 chips are much easier to find
than J-11 chips - DEC used the T-11 in a variety of peripheral cards
and terminals, and such. I personally probably have half-a-dozen T-11
chips, and two J-11 chips (one Pro380 and one KDJ11 board).
Google is a funny thing. Just found my own reply from june 2007:
There is a guy who made his own SBC with a T-11, and
even ported Forth
on it. I thought I knew his webpage, but it seems, I lost the bookmark.
But check google groups for "peter mccollum forth t11" and you will find
at least the discussions ...
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bfranchuk＠jetnet.ab.ca -
emu＠e-bbes.com -
ethan.dicks＠gmail.com