Remote job submission from PDP-11

[Ethan Dicks]

On Wed, Oct 7, 2020 at 12:07 PM Glen Slick via cctalk
<cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
>
> On Wed, Oct 7, 2020 at 8:37 AM Ethan Dicks wrote:
> >
> > On Wed, Oct 7, 2020 at 5:07 AM Peter Allan wrote:
> > > RJE/HASP
> > > 2780/3780 Protocol Emulator
> >
> > I used to do this with specialty hardware...
> >
> > http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/softwareResults/Software_Results_Comboard_Brochure_1983.pdf
> >
> > There were also intelligent sync serial engines for this from other
> > vendors, including DEC (KMC11, and probably a later one but the device
> > name escapes me).
>
> I was curious about this DEC M8704 DMS11-DA that sold cheap a few days
> ago. It has eight SMC COM5025 "Multi-Protocol Universal Synchronous
> Receiver/Transmitter USYNR/T" chips:
>
> https://www.ebay.com/itm/373243388363
>
> Apparently it can't do anything on its own. It needs to be connected
> to a UNIBUS through a companion KMC11 processor board, which might not
> be too common if someone wanted to put together a working
> configuration.

I have very dim memories of that arrangement - it was definitely
ordinary that you had a dedicated I/O processor to run multiple lines.

Part of the salable benefit of the COMBOARD was having an 8MHz 68000
manage the actual protocol - it moved block file data to/from the DEC
host via DMA.  The M68K wrapped it up as needed, handled
re-transmission, etc.

Using a KMC11 is similar, IIRC, certainly at the bottom levels.

-ethan


-ethan