Need a PDP-8/I Bootable DECtape - test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

8 May 2012

...
  Those new fangled IC's just aren't reliable. I
only needed to repair
 14 processor board plus one power supply board in my straight 8.
 Do you have any idea why so many? I didn't have to repair that many
 in my 8/I though didn't record the actual count. 
The system sat in an uncontrolled environment for many years. There
was lots of corrosion on the boards. Some of the leads on the ICs were
so rusted that you could pry them off the board. We replaced LOTS of
7474 and 7400 ICs, and quite a few 7410, 7420, and 7440 ICs. There
were all kinds of interesting failure modes.

...
  The only OS I know that will run in 4k is disk monitor
system (it does
 run on dectape only systems despite the name). 
I saw that, read the manual, and couldn't believe that a disk
operating system would run with just a DECtape.

...
  The paper tape images needed to build it are here.
 http://www.pdp8online.com/ftp/software/paper_tapes/ 
Got them now.

...
  See in the readme DEC_D8* files. Start with SBAF then
use the load
 and save command for the other programs as desired. ?I tested with an
 emulator that the DF32 PIP works with DECtape. 
We will give it a try if we successfully format a tape.

...
  I recently built it for my DF32 so if you need more
help I can provide. I
 can build a DECtape using an emulator and my PDP-8 but I can't test it
 since I don't have a TD controller. 
The TC01 controller doesn't have any ICs, so it just worked.

Thanks for the help.

-- 
Michael Thompson