Which RT-11 for an 11/03

[Richard Cini]

Jerome —

	Thanks for jumping in here. All good questions, and here’s what my plan is.

	I bought the H11 as a project. I have a soft spot for the PDP-11, after owning (and donating) an 11/34 to the RICM. This unit needed a lot of physical TLC but was believed to be functional (it was). 

	The original configuration was the CPU card (DEC), two 16kw memory boards (Heath; with appropriate memory hole at the top) and a single SLU (Heath). I located two more SLUs (all Heath), an extra memory board (32kw; unbranded) and a parallel board (Heath; not installed).

	After lots of cleaning, then qualifying the power supply, and confirming the board jumpers were set properly, I fired it up, using PDP11GUI as the console, and I got the ODT prompt. So, good news there.

	My unit did not come with Heath’s RX01-equivalent (and no software or manuals), so there’s no method of storage. I stumbled upon the TU58EM program and since I had two SLUs configured properly, I thought I’d give it a try as an alternative to nothing. I really don’t have the room for a real RX01, so I though this was a fair compromise.

	What am I going to do with this setup? I don’t know. Right now it’s fun reacquainting myself with DEC after about 10 years without one.


Rich

--
Rich Cini
http://www.classiccmp.org/cini
http://www.classiccmp.org/altair32







On 3/11/16, 9:21 PM, "cctalk on behalf of Jerome H. Fine" <cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org on behalf of jhfinedp3k at compsys.to> wrote:

> >On Thursday, February 10th, 2016 at 12:51:30 - 0500, Richard Cini wrote:
>
>>Is there a listing somewhere of what versions of RT-11 work with which CPUs? The Heath H11 uses the LSI-11 which I think is an 11/03 equivalent. Is there a specific version (or maximum version) designed for this CPU?
>>
>>I tried v4 using a method I found on-line (modifying with SIMH to make it bootable as a TU58 image rather than an RK) but it doesn't work so I wanted to first eliminate the system version as the potential problem.
>>
>Sorry for the delay in my answer.  I was out of town for the last
>36 hours, so I just noticed this thread.
>
>For maximum flexibility, I would suggest V05.03 of RT-11.  It is
>just about the most widely available and has the benefit of probably
>being completely legal to use on a non-commercial basis with SimH.
>
>V04.00 of RT-11 will probably run equally well, but obviously
>without some of the many additional features found in V05.03
>of RT-11.  In addition, you might want to check even later
>versions of RT-11, all of which still run on a PDP-11/03 CPU.
>
>Under V05.03 of RT-11, you can use either distributed
>Unmapped Monitor, RT11SJ or RT11FB.  The size will be
>larger than from V04.00 of RT-11, but I suggest that the
>additional features are more than worth while.  Since you
>have all 32 KW or memory or 64 KB, you will not have
>any problem booting RT-11.
>
>If you have any specific questions using Ersatz-11 with
>a PDP-11/03, just ask.  That will make sure that the
>configuration and the boot device is set up correctly.
>
>Just for practice, you might try using Ersatz-11 with V05.03
>of RT-11 with SET  CPU 03.  You will find that Ersatz-11
>is trivial to use and that it supports emulation of all types of
>disk drives including TU-58, RK05, RL02 and SCSI, named,
>respectively, DD:, RK:, DL: and DU:, the same as DEC names
>them.  Be warned that after you practice with Ersatz-11, you
>may find that an LSI-11, also called a PDP-11/03, is a bit
>slower than running with Ersatz-11, even on a 486.  My
>experience with just a 750 MHz Pentium III is that RT-11
>runs about 15 times as fast as a PDP-11/93.  On a current
>I7 from Intel, I expect speeds more than 100 times as fast
>as a PDP-11/93.
>
>If you provide some of the information requested below, a
>version of RT-11 might be suggested which is a better fit.
>Otherwise, my assumption at present is that you want to
>use RT-11 since it is the only reasonable choice out of
>RT-11, RSX-11 and RSTS/E, although I am reasonably
>sure that RSTS/E can't run on a PDP-11/03.  Further, you
>want to run RT-11 to be able to show that you can run
>RT-11 on the PDP-11/03 hardware that you have.  That
>is quite different from the original reason a PDP-11/03
>system was purchased, namely to run specific application
>programs which were able to run under RT-11.  If I
>am incorrect, please let me know and advise otherwise.
>
>It does sound like you have the Heath Kit version of the hardware.
>If so, then you probably don't have a hard disk drive.  A complete
>list of the actual hardware will be helpful.  In addition, even more
>important from my point of view is why you want to use the hardware
>that you have to run RT-11 (most likely because it will not run anything
>else very easily) and then which specific application programs will be
>run after you are successful in getting RT-11 to run.  Just as important
>is how you will interface with the PDP-11/03 and move the results
>from the PDP-11/03 to either printed output or a system that can
>share the results via the internet.
>
>Jerome Fine