9 May
2011
9 May
'11
8:02 a.m.
On Mon May 9 14:57:10 2011 bob at jfcl.com wrote
> Jerome Fine (jhfinedp3k at compsys.to) wrote:
>How would device drivers designed for a Qbus or Unibus do disk I/O?
> How would serial ports to a terminal operate?
You could, if you had the right bits and knew enough
about RT11, just
write new device drivers for RT11 and port it to S100 hardware. I'm sure
there are people with enough knowledge to do that, but RT11 is _not free_.
What hobbyists do in their garage is one thing, but any commercial
endeavor would have to be careful about putting their name on that.
Wouldn't it be possible to sell a kit containing the complete board and
enclosure, power supply etc. and device drivers, but *not* the OS? I think
most hobbyists wouldn't have a problem getting RT11/RSX whatever on their
own using the hobbyist license and installing it themselves. The hardware
part (and the device drivers) is what most people can't do.
I think a complete kit less the OS is viable and fair to all parties. I
would like to see more (any!) choices in that area, new retro hardware
ready for vintage but readily available OS.
9 May
9 May
5:21 p.m.
From: vintagecoder at aol.com
Sent: Monday, May 09, 2011 8:02 AM
Wouldn't it be possible to sell a kit containing
the complete board and
enclosure, power supply etc. and device drivers, but *not* the OS? I think
most hobbyists wouldn't have a problem getting RT11/RSX whatever on their
own using the hobbyist license and installing it themselves. The hardware
part (and the device drivers) is what most people can't do.
You do realize, don't you, that there is no such thing as a hobbyist license
for any of the PDP-11 operating systems from DEC/Digital/Mentec?
Rich Alderson
Vintage Computing Sr. Server 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/
5:59 p.m.
Rich Alderson wrote:
From: vintagecoder at aol.com
Sent: Monday, May 09, 2011 8:02 AM
Almost true. And strictly speaking, mostly true.
Sometime before 1998, Bob Supnik (a VP at DEC at the time)
arranged with Mentec to allow specified versions (and prior)
of RSTS/E, RSX-11 and RT-11 to run on an emulator from
DEC.
The license form from Mentec specified that users were allowed
to acquire binary distributions and run them under the DEC
emulator. Everything was for non-commercial purposes ONLY.
No support of any kind was available from DEC or Mentec.
In particular, permission was received from DEC and Mentec (or
so I heard) to prepare V05.03 of RT-11 on an RL02 drive and
compress it along with other files. That zipped file has been
available for download since 1998 for use by hobby users.
Neither Mentec nor DEC have complained about the current
SIMH being used in place of the DEC emulator and the binary
distribution of V05.03 of RT-11 has remained continuously
available since 1998.
Some individuals feel that SIMH does not qualify as a DEC
emulator. However, most hobby users who want to use
V05.03 of RT-11 under SIMH don't seem to have a problem.
On the other hand, very early versions of the DEC emulator
must still exist somewhere and would still qualify.
Rich, are you aware of that license form from Mentec which
allows specified versions of RSTS/E, RSX-11 and RT-11 to
be run under a DEC emulator?
Jerome Fine
Wouldn't it be possible to sell a kit
containing the complete board and
enclosure, power supply etc. and device drivers, but *not* the OS? I think
most hobbyists wouldn't have a problem getting RT11/RSX whatever on their
own using the hobbyist license and installing it themselves. The hardware
part (and the device drivers) is what most people can't do.
You do realize, don't you, that there is no such thing as a hobbyist license
for any of the PDP-11 operating systems from DEC/Digital/Mentec?
5022
days inactive
5023
days old
2 comments
3 participants
participants (3)
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jhfinedp3k＠compsys.to -
RichA＠vulcan.com -
vintagecoder＠aol.com