< two minutes? that is slow... I can boot my TU-58 based system < in 30 seconds... (I engineered an optimized TU58 many years < ago when people within Digital were asking how to get it to boot < faster). It involves specific placement of various RT-11 < files on one of the four recording tracks. For those who wanted < the system to run faster once booted, you could additionally take < the step of loading stuff into VM and rebooting it it... Having done that (I have a system I can demonstrate) plus the VM: trick it's possible to build a really nice system using TU58 only! It's in the V5 RT11 doc set. FYI for the 11/730 hackers the TU58 boot tape for that beast also has an optimum order for faster booting. < (depending on the rev of the 11/23... only Rev.C could < do so). I've found earlier revs do, but not all and they may fail diagnostics while appearing to work normally. I try to reserve 11/23 (KDF11-A M8186) to 256k unless I've verified it's a REV-C or later and tested it. The later 11/23B (KDF11-B M8189) is Q22 and saves needing a boot rom/card. They are common enough. Allison