Received: from ELI.CS.YALE.EDU by BUGS.SUN4.CS.YALE.EDU; Wed, 2 May 90 05:53:30 EDT Received: from life.ai.mit.edu by ELI.CS.YALE.EDU; Wed, 2 May 90 05:38:09 EDT Received: from lcs.mit.edu (MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU) by life.ai.mit.edu (4.1/AI-4.10) id AA13263; Wed, 2 May 90 05:17:37 EDT Received: from mc.lcs.mit.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa27218; 1 May 90 9:17 EDT Received: from lcs.mit.edu (CHAOS 15044) by MC.LCS.MIT.EDU; 1 May 90 09:15:05 EDT Received: from mimsy.umd.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa27071; 1 May 90 9:14 EDT Received: by mimsy.UMD.EDU (5.61/UMIACS-0.9/04-05-88) id AA03906; Tue, 1 May 90 09:14:11 -0400 Date: Tue, 1 May 90 09:14:09 -0400 From: woodb!scsmo1!don@cs.umd.edu Message-Id: <9005011314.AA03906@mimsy.UMD.EDU> To: mimsy!MC.lcs.mit.edu!pdp8-lovers@cs.umd.edu Date: Tue, 1 May 90 09:14:09 -0400 From: woodb!scsmo1!don@cs.umd.edu To: mimsy!MC.lcs.mit.edu!pdp8-lovers@cs.umd.edu Received: by woodb.UUCP (uucp on woodb) To: mimsy!MC.lcs.mit.edu!pdp8-lovers Subject: Subscription and a PDP11/34 Received: by scsmo1.UUCP (smail2.5) id AA02284; 1 May 90 07:56:17 CDT (Tue) Subject: Subscription and a PDP11/34 To: woodb!mimsy!MC.lcs.mit.edu!pdp8-lovers Date: Tue, 1 May 90 7:56:16 CDT X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.2 PL0] Message-Id: <9005010756.AA02284@scsmo1.UUCP> From: don@scsmo1.UUCP (Don Ingli) First of all, if many of you are knowledgable on the pdp11/34 or believe this list will benefit a pdp11/34 owner then please subscribe me to this list..... Second, I am planing to buy a pdp11/34. The owner says it has multi-user BASIC on it but comming from a UNIX environment, I would like to have SySV (if possible) UNIX on the 11/34. Also, can I have your reactions on this machine. Is it easy to obtain manuals for it and is there alot of cheap to free software for it??? Please send your comments here-------------+ \ | / \ / V -- Don Ingli - USDA/Soil Conservation Service - Information Resource Mgmt. INTERNET: mimsy!woodb!scsmo1!don@uunet.uu.net PHONE: (314) 875-5344 UUCP: ...!uunet!mimsy!woodb!scsmo1!don These are my opinions and I represent only myself. Received: from ELI.CS.YALE.EDU by BUGS.SUN4.CS.YALE.EDU; Thu, 3 May 90 07:18:47 EDT Received: from life.ai.mit.edu by ELI.CS.YALE.EDU; Thu, 3 May 90 07:15:07 EDT Received: from lcs.mit.edu (MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU) by life.ai.mit.edu (4.1/AI-4.10) id AA03558; Thu, 3 May 90 06:04:42 EDT Received: from mc.lcs.mit.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa15524; 2 May 90 15:47 EDT Received: from lcs.mit.edu (CHAOS 15044) by MC.LCS.MIT.EDU; 2 May 90 15:45:02 EDT Received: from mimsy.umd.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa15400; 2 May 90 15:44 EDT Received: from sunic.sunet.se by mimsy.UMD.EDU (5.61/UMIACS-0.9/04-05-88) id AA19362; Wed, 2 May 90 15:24:54 -0400 Received: from AIDA.CSD.UU.SE by sunic.sunet.se (5.61+IDA/KTH/LTH/1.131) id AAsunic25917; Wed, 2 May 90 21:24:32 +0200 Date: Wed 2 May 90 21:23:34 From: Johnny Billquist To: don%scsmo1%woodb@cs.umd.edu Cc: pdp8-lovers%MC.lcs.mit.edu@cs.umd.edu, D89.JOHNNY-BILLQUIST@aida.csd.uu.se In-Reply-To: <9005011314.AA03906@mimsy.UMD.EDU> Message-Id: <900502212334.13.D89.JOHNNY-BILLQUIST@AIDA.CSD.UU.SE> Date: Wed 2 May 90 21:23:34 From: Johnny Billquist To: don%scsmo1%woodb@cs.umd.edu Cc: pdp8-lovers%MC.lcs.mit.edu@cs.umd.edu, D89.JOHNNY-BILLQUIST@aida.csd.uu.se In-Reply-To: <9005011314.AA03906@mimsy.UMD.EDU> Hi, Don. First: Welcome to the pdp8-lovers, even if you don't have a pdp8. I'm sure Rob will add you to the list (RS@AI.MIT.EDU). Second: The pdp-11 is maybe the best machine ever designed, if you ask me (I love my eights, but the eleven is great!). There is lots of software, even free for it, and UNIX has a lot of versions for the pdp-11. I guess it will cost you some $$$ to get that, though... The multiuser basic could be RSTS/E. If so, that's a pretty good OS. It might also be another OS, which I'm quite unfamiliar with, which is not that good. However, if you can spare the bucks, go for it. It's a nice machine, even if a little small, by all standards. The only fault I ever found in the eleven was the fact that address space is limited to 16 bits, ot 64Kbytes for each process. Johnny Received: from ELI.CS.YALE.EDU by BUGS.SUN4.CS.YALE.EDU; Thu, 3 May 90 21:31:18 EDT Received: from life.ai.mit.edu by ELI.CS.YALE.EDU; Thu, 3 May 90 21:19:46 EDT Received: from EDDIE.MIT.EDU by life.ai.mit.edu (4.1/AI-4.10) id AA16823; Thu, 3 May 90 20:42:25 EDT Received: by EDDIE.MIT.EDU with UUCP (5.61/25-eef) id AB12823; Thu, 3 May 90 19:41:25 EST Received: by XN.LL.MIT.EDU; Thu, 3 May 90 19:28:47 EDT Posted-Date: 3 May 90 14:36:10 PDT (Thu) Received: from sceard.UUCP by ucsd.edu; id AA28210 sendmail 5.61/UCSD-2.0-sun via UUCP Thu, 3 May 90 15:43:17 -0700 for mit-eddie!ai.mit.edu!pdp8-lovers Received: by Sceard.COM (smail2.5/deliver1.5) id AA17790; 3 May 90 14:36:10 PDT (Thu) To: pdp8-lovers@ai.mit.edu Subject: pdp11, pdp8 Message-Id: <9005031436.AA17790@Sceard.COM> Date: 3 May 90 14:36:10 PDT (Thu) From: ll-xn!ucsd!Sceard.COM!mrm@eddie.mit.edu (M.R.Murphy) Posted-Date: 3 May 90 14:36:10 PDT (Thu) To: pdp8-lovers@ai.mit.edu Subject: pdp11, pdp8 Date: 3 May 90 14:36:10 PDT (Thu) From: ll-xn!ucsd!Sceard.COM!mrm@eddie.mit.edu (M.R.Murphy) The PDP-11 has an instruction address space of 16 bits and a data address space of 16 bits (kind of like I-FIELD and D-FIELD, no?) but the memory management hardware had all the hooks to run a complete virtual system. That means that had someone (DEC, anyone else, whoever) wished to implement OS and compiler support, processes could have been limited in size only by the amount of external memory devoted to swapping and paging. The major limitation is that the I/O is not mapped through the memory management unit. Since physical memory could have been non-contiguous and, in fact, not monotonic with respect to virtual memory, this would have made direct I/O into user space a real kick. However, buffered system I/O wouldn't be a problem except for real-time performance. Since the 11 was a real-time product (RSX,RT,et.al.) , oh well... enough PDP-11 Back to the PDP-8. I have modified the DECUS-C FOCAL to run under SYSTEM V. Really simple to convert it to BSD, it would be. The directory stuff and file load, file write works. I've really missed FOCAL, and I liked it better than BASIC. If anyone wants it, E-mail. I'm in the act of typing in a manual, but you all did keep your DEC FOCAL manuals, didn't you? I've completed the first shot at a PDP-8 simulator, again to run under SYSTEM V, and again easily convertable to BSD. It has the following features (or bugs, if you prefer) o support for multiple fields o interrupts o simulation of IOTs for device 01, 02, 03, 04 o currently executes at 65% of the speed of a PDP-8S on a 10MHz '286 running Microport SV/AT :-) Hand optimized assembler would produce code that would run quite a bit faster than PCC generated code. I saved several magnetic tapes made on a PDP-8 about, oh, 18 years ago. All but one, cleverly, made in core dump mode 9-track, and therefore, unreadable on our current drives :-(. The one remaining tape was made on another PDP-8 and was readable. It is a dump of an OS/8 system disk. The boot block looks OK, and I'm in the act of implementing support for a disk device for the simulator, writing the OS/8 system driver for that device, patching it into the disk image, and getting set to run OS/8 under SV. Seemed like a good thing to do at the time :-) Does anyone have an OS/8 paper tape distribution that they'd part with for a while? I'd hate to be missing something that isn't on that one disk image. Even better would be a nice 9-track dump that is readable. Or a TSS-8 distribution. If someone from DEC reads this, and is in a position to speak or speculate, what's the current status of OS/8 or TSS-8, for that matter? Could I make this stuff available? Would anyone care? Kind of makes me feel like I imagine that people who rebuild steam engines just to hear them run and watch the governer spin feel about what they do :-) Would people please let the rest of us know what PDP-8 systems they have running, almost running, or just sitting? We got rid of our last PDP-8a about 2 years ago. More's the pity... Regards, Mike -- Mike Murphy Sceard Systems, Inc. 544 South Pacific St. San Marcos, CA 92069 mrm@Sceard.COM {hp-sdd,nosc,ucsd,uunet}!sceard!mrm +1 619 471 0655 Received: from ELI.CS.YALE.EDU by BUGS.SUN4.CS.YALE.EDU; Thu, 3 May 90 23:00:36 EDT Received: from life.ai.mit.edu by ELI.CS.YALE.EDU; Thu, 3 May 90 22:52:33 EDT Received: from mips.com by life.ai.mit.edu (4.1/AI-4.10) id AA17968; Thu, 3 May 90 22:07:42 EDT Received: by mips.com (5.61.14/1.11) id AA22654; Thu, 3 May 90 19:07:22 -0700 From: david%llustig@mips.com Message-Id: <9005040207.AA22654@mips.com> To: pdp8-lovers@ai.mit.edu Subject: Need DECtapes Date: Thu May 3 19:06:13 1990 From: david%llustig@mips.com To: pdp8-lovers@ai.mit.edu Subject: Need DECtapes Date: Thu May 3 19:06:13 1990 My PDP-8 runs fine, but the DECtapes are dead. Where can I get some? And where can I get OS/8 & utilities? -- David Schachter llustig!david@mips.com ...!uunet!mips!llustig!david david@llustig.UUCP (MAYBE) +1 415 328 7425 Palo Alto, California, USA Received: from ELI.CS.YALE.EDU by BUGS.SUN4.CS.YALE.EDU; Fri, 4 May 90 09:52:24 EDT Received: from life.ai.mit.edu by ELI.CS.YALE.EDU; Fri, 4 May 90 09:39:44 EDT Received: from EDDIE.MIT.EDU by life.ai.mit.edu (4.1/AI-4.10) id AA24650; Fri, 4 May 90 09:13:03 EDT Received: by EDDIE.MIT.EDU (5.61/25-eef) id AA20336; Fri, 4 May 90 08:11:53 EST Date: Fri, 4 May 90 08:11:53 EST From: Robert E. Seastrom Message-Id: <9005041311.AA20336@EDDIE.MIT.EDU> To: david%llustig@mips.com Cc: pdp8-lovers@ai.mit.edu In-Reply-To: david%llustig@mips.com's message of Thu May 3 19:06:13 1990 <9005040207.AA22654@mips.com> Subject: Need DECtapes Date: Fri, 4 May 90 08:11:53 EST From: Robert E. Seastrom To: david%llustig@mips.com Cc: pdp8-lovers@ai.mit.edu In-Reply-To: david%llustig@mips.com's message of Thu May 3 19:06:13 1990 <9005040207.AA22654@mips.com> Subject: Need DECtapes From: david%llustig@mips.com My PDP-8 runs fine, but the DECtapes are dead. Where can I get some? And where can I get OS/8 & utilities? I'm confused. Are you looking for DECtapes, or are you looking for TU-55 for TU-56 DECtape transport units? Your posting doesn't make it clear. If you want to get some brand-new ones, you might want to try DECdirect; they might have a few left in stock (last I checked you could still order paper tape from them!) - make sure you aren't getting DECtape IIs though. A related thought: Once the magnetic stuff goes to hell, has anyone had any experience winding 1" video tape or some such onto the empty DECtape reels? ---Rob Received: from ELI.CS.YALE.EDU by BUGS.SUN4.CS.YALE.EDU; Fri, 4 May 90 14:29:12 EDT Received: from life.ai.mit.edu by ELI.CS.YALE.EDU; Fri, 4 May 90 14:18:21 EDT Received: from ucscc.UCSC.EDU by life.ai.mit.edu (4.1/AI-4.10) id AA28664; Fri, 4 May 90 13:24:20 EDT Received: from helios.UCSC.EDU by ucscc.UCSC.EDU (5.61/1.35) id AA20803; Fri, 4 May 90 10:25:24 -0700 Received: from helios.ucsc.edu (snap) by helios (4.0/4.7) id AA05169; Fri, 4 May 90 10:23:40 PDT Received: by helios.ucsc.edu (4.0/SMI-4.0) id AA03729; Fri, 4 May 90 10:23:39 PDT Date: Fri, 4 May 90 10:23:39 PDT From: kibrick%helios.UCSC.EDU@ucscc.ucsc.edu Message-Id: <9005041723.AA03729@helios.ucsc.edu> To: ll-xn!ucsd!Sceard.COM!mrm@eddie.mit.edu Subject: Re: pdp11, pdp8 Cc: pdp8-lovers@ai.mit.edu Date: Fri, 4 May 90 10:23:39 PDT From: kibrick%helios.UCSC.EDU@ucscc.ucsc.edu To: ll-xn!ucsd!Sceard.COM!mrm@eddie.mit.edu Subject: Re: pdp11, pdp8 Cc: pdp8-lovers@ai.mit.edu Mike, We still have two PDP-8/I computers in operation. These are 32K machines with EAE and dual TU-55 DECtape drives. The machines also have some custom I/O interfaces of our own design. One of these provides support for dual 8-inch floppy drives which emulate all DECtape functions, with the exception of read/write reverse, and will thus run nearly all DECtape software transparently. These machines can also read/write 9-track magtape at 800 BPI (NRZI) and 1600 BPI (PE). Other peripherals include a Tektronix 611 Memscope, DECwriter, Calcomp plotter, and RS-232 interface. I have DECtape distributions for OS/8 Version 3, and also a large number of DECtapes from DECUS symposia of the 1976-1979 era; these contain lots of interesting OS/8 utilities. I would be happy to copy these if DEC indicates that there is no problem in doing so. Robert Kibrick Lick Observatory Natural Sciences 2 University of California Santa Cruz, CA 95064-1012 (408)-459-2262 kibrick@helios.ucsc.edu kibrick@portal.BITNET Received: from ELI.CS.YALE.EDU by BUGS.SUN4.CS.YALE.EDU; Fri, 4 May 90 16:21:25 EDT Received: from life.ai.mit.edu by ELI.CS.YALE.EDU; Fri, 4 May 90 16:06:25 EDT Received: from mips.com by life.ai.mit.edu (4.1/AI-4.10) id AA00766; Fri, 4 May 90 15:11:16 EDT Received: by mips.com (5.61.14/1.11) id AA13302; Fri, 4 May 90 12:10:55 -0700 From: root%llustig@mips.com Message-Id: <9005041910.AA13302@mips.com> To: pdp8-lovers@ai.mit.edu Subject: DECtapes again Date: Fri May 4 12:08:58 1990 From: root%llustig@mips.com To: pdp8-lovers@ai.mit.edu Subject: DECtapes again Date: Fri May 4 12:08:58 1990 My request for a source of DECtapes was meant as an inquiry about the physical medium, not the drives (TU-58, et. al.) used to read and write them. My drives work find (or so my Significant Other tells me) but I haven't any good tapes (DECtapes) for them. (DECtapes, not DECtape II's.) -- David Schachter llustig!david@mips.com ...!uunet!mips!llustig!david david@llustig.UUCP (MAYBE) +1 415 328 7425 Palo Alto, California, USA Received: from ELI.CS.YALE.EDU by BUGS.SUN4.CS.YALE.EDU; Fri, 4 May 90 21:33:13 EDT Received: from life.ai.mit.edu by ELI.CS.YALE.EDU; Fri, 4 May 90 21:27:20 EDT Received: from sunic.sunet.se by life.ai.mit.edu (4.1/AI-4.10) id AA05396; Fri, 4 May 90 20:43:39 EDT Received: from AIDA.CSD.UU.SE by sunic.sunet.se (5.61+IDA/KTH/LTH/1.134) id AAsunic12227; Sat, 5 May 90 02:43:21 +0200 Date: Sat 5 May 90 02:42:04 From: Johnny Billquist Subject: Re: Need DECtapes To: david%llustig@mips.com Cc: pdp8-lovers@ai.mit.edu, D89.JOHNNY-BILLQUIST@aida.csd.uu.se In-Reply-To: <9005040207.AA22654@mips.com> Message-Id: <900505024204.11.D89.JOHNNY-BILLQUIST@AIDA.CSD.UU.SE> Date: Sat 5 May 90 02:42:04 From: Johnny Billquist Subject: Re: Need DECtapes To: david%llustig@mips.com Cc: pdp8-lovers@ai.mit.edu, D89.JOHNNY-BILLQUIST@aida.csd.uu.se In-Reply-To: <9005040207.AA22654@mips.com> Hi, David. Are you having problems with the drives or the tapes? If you need tapes, I can provide some. OS/8 and utilities can be dumped down on DECtape as well. What system do you have? Do you have any disks? Johnny Received: from ELI.CS.YALE.EDU by BUGS.SYSTEMSY.CS.YALE.EDU; Fri, 18 May 90 22:24:00 EDT Received: from life.ai.mit.edu by ELI.CS.YALE.EDU; Fri, 18 May 90 22:13:14 EDT Received: from mitvma.mit.edu by life.ai.mit.edu (4.1/AI-4.10) id AA09084; Fri, 18 May 90 21:21:50 EDT Message-Id: <9005190121.AA09084@life.ai.mit.edu> Received: from MITVMA.MIT.EDU by mitvma.mit.edu (IBM VM SMTP R1.2.1MX) with BSMTP id 6430; Fri, 18 May 90 17:47:22 EDT X-Delivery-Notice: SMTP MAIL FROM does not correspond to sender. Received: from ccm.UManitoba.CA (RFLUKES@UOFMCC) by MITVMA.MIT.EDU (Mailer R2.05) with BSMTP id 9510; Fri, 18 May 90 17:47:20 EDT Date: Fri, 18 May 90 16:39 CDT From: RFLUKES%ccm.UManitoba.CA@mitvma.mit.edu To: PDP8-LOVERS@ai.mit.edu Subject: Looking for M840 PC8E reader/punch controller X-Delivery-Notice: SMTP MAIL FROM does not correspond to sender. Date: Fri, 18 May 90 16:39 CDT From: RFLUKES%ccm.UManitoba.CA@mitvma.mit.edu To: PDP8-LOVERS@ai.mit.edu Subject: Looking for M840 PC8E reader/punch controller Hi Guys, I require an M840 reader/punch controller. Anyone out there have one they would be willing to part with? I will buy or swap for one. I also am still hunting for RL8A and FPP8A circuit boards. I still have a good selection of Unibus boards I would like to swap for Omnibus or Qbus cards... Many thanks, Richard F. Lukes Computer Science Department University of Manitoba Winnipeg, Manitoba R3T 2N2 Canada RFLUKES@CCM.UMANITOBA.CA Summary-line: 21-May gfrajkor@ccs.carleton.ca #drives Received: from ELI.CS.YALE.EDU by BUGS.SYSTEMSY.CS.YALE.EDU; Mon, 21 May 90 20:35:12 EDT Received: from life.ai.mit.edu by ELI.CS.YALE.EDU; Mon, 21 May 90 20:31:31 EDT Received: from alfred.ccs.carleton.ca ([134.117.1.1]) by life.ai.mit.edu (4.1/AI-4.10) id AA13352; Mon, 21 May 90 19:25:57 EDT Received: by alfred.ccs.carleton.ca (4.1/SMI-4.0) id AA03592; Mon, 21 May 90 19:27:33 EDT Date: Mon, 21 May 90 19:27:33 EDT From: gfrajkor@ccs.carleton.ca (Goerge Frajkor) Message-Id: <9005212327.AA03592@alfred.ccs.carleton.ca> To: -v@ccs.carleton.ca, pdp8-lovers@ai.mit.edu Subject: drives Date: Mon, 21 May 90 19:27:33 EDT From: gfrajkor@ccs.carleton.ca (Goerge Frajkor) To: -v@ccs.carleton.ca, pdp8-lovers@ai.mit.edu Subject: drives I have an old PDP8 with a six-foot tall rack of RKO5J drives which looks awfully impressive but in fact holds only 16 meg or so of memory. Has anyone ever tried to cable up the standard small Winchester drives of today (Seagates, Quantums, MicroScis, etc., ) to an 8E? Is there any hardware/software reason it cannot be done? this thing is using OS8 right now. I would dearly love to get rid of the rack and the drives and cobble up the cables so that the 8E could use a RAINBOW type hard drive (or indeed, a floppy -- some of the new high density floppies carry more than the old 500k RKO5. Also, I once read that some students at Ryerson Polytech in Toronto were working on converting a PDP8 to run MSDOS software. That struck me as impossible. Am I right? Received: from ELI.CS.YALE.EDU by BUGS.SYSTEMSY.CS.YALE.EDU; Tue, 22 May 90 18:03:48 EDT Received: from life.ai.mit.edu by ELI.CS.YALE.EDU; Tue, 22 May 90 18:01:32 EDT Received: from sunic.sunet.se by life.ai.mit.edu (4.1/AI-4.10) id AA00391; Tue, 22 May 90 17:12:43 EDT Received: from AIDA.CSD.UU.SE by sunic.sunet.se (5.61+IDA/KTH/LTH/1.138) id AAsunic16566; Tue, 22 May 90 22:16:16 +0200 Received: from CARMEN.DOCS.UU.SE by AIDA.CSD.UU.SE with TCP; Tue 22 May 90 22:12:19 Date: Tue 22 May 90 22:15:36 From: Johnny Billquist Subject: Re: drives To: gfrajkor@ccs.carleton.ca Cc: -v@ccs.carleton.ca, pdp8-lovers@ai.mit.edu, D89.JOHNNY-BILLQUIST@carmen.docs.uu.se In-Reply-To: <9005212327.AA03592@alfred.ccs.carleton.ca> Message-Id: <900522221536.12.D89.JOHNNY-BILLQUIST@CARMEN.DOCS.UU.SE> Date: Tue 22 May 90 22:15:36 From: Johnny Billquist Subject: Re: drives To: gfrajkor@ccs.carleton.ca Cc: -v@ccs.carleton.ca, pdp8-lovers@ai.mit.edu, D89.JOHNNY-BILLQUIST@carmen.docs.uu.se In-Reply-To: <9005212327.AA03592@alfred.ccs.carleton.ca> Hi, Goerge (or should it be George?) Connecting modern drives to an omnibus eight? Well, there are two aspects to this. Hardware: Sure, no problems. It is very possible, but you will probably have to build your own controller, which interface to the omnibus. The omnibus is quite capable of handling such a device. However, software is a pain in the ass. OS8, which is the operating system you, and everybody else use, has a serious limitation. No device can have more than 4095 blocks. An RK05 actually holds 3 meg, or 6000 blocks (approx.). OS8 solves this by regarding one RK05 as two drives, of approx. 3000 blocks each. It gets worse if you have an RL02, which takes 10 meg. OS8 needs to handle this as five drives, of 4000 blocks each. This leads to problem #2. OS8 can only have 16 devices at the same time. Clearly this gives that you have no big use of large hard disks, unless you write a new OS. Plans for new OS' sure exists, but no more than plans. The problem is getting software. All software is written for OS8, and some of that software is really good, such as the macro assembler. If that could become free, maybe something funnny could happen. As to converting a PDP8 to run MSDOS software, it sure is possible, but pretty stupid. What you would need to do is amulationg the 8086 processor, which can be done. And moving and converting the BIOS. Also, no software which directly addresses the screen memory, or uses graphics would work. Note that you would need to implement virtual memory to be able to run MSDOS, since it expects to find 640K memory, or so, and the pdp8 only have 32 KW. Such an emulation would be very slow, and would not give much of an improvement to the eight (the opposite in my mind... :-) Has anybody made any plans for an SCSI interface for the eight? Or any other modern interface for big disks? Johnny Received: from ELI.CS.YALE.EDU by BUGS.SYSTEMSY.CS.YALE.EDU; Wed, 23 May 90 22:48:51 EDT Received: from life.ai.mit.edu by ELI.CS.YALE.EDU; Wed, 23 May 90 22:47:31 EDT Received: from uxa.cso.uiuc.edu by life.ai.mit.edu (4.1/AI-4.10) id AA20072; Wed, 23 May 90 22:02:36 EDT Received: by uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (5.61+/IDA-1.2.8) id AA19272; Wed, 23 May 90 21:01:25 -0500 Date: Wed, 23 May 90 21:01:25 -0500 From: Danger Mouse Message-Id: <9005240201.AA19272@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu> To: D89.JOHNNY-BILLQUIST@carmen.docs.uu.se, gfrajkor@ccs.carleton.ca Subject: Re: drives Cc: -v@ccs.carleton.ca, pdp8-lovers@ai.mit.edu Date: Wed, 23 May 90 21:01:25 -0500 From: Danger Mouse To: D89.JOHNNY-BILLQUIST@carmen.docs.uu.se, gfrajkor@ccs.carleton.ca Subject: Re: drives Cc: -v@ccs.carleton.ca, pdp8-lovers@ai.mit.edu >Has anybody made any plans for an SCSI interface for the eight? >Or any other modern interface for big disks? I have decided to go a different route, and that's to write an MS-DOS device driver for the unused PDP-8/e I have. The eight will (hopefully) just see a terminal ... or maybe I will want my PC to act as the boot device for the PDP, I don't know yet. Has anyone done anything like this yet? +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Loren E. Heal | Internet: leheal@uiuc.edu (from *net, you figure it out) | |(Not a spokesman for the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) | |(I may work there, but I still own my own mind!) | +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+ Received: from ELI.CS.YALE.EDU by BUGS.SYSTEMSY.CS.YALE.EDU; Thu, 24 May 90 07:21:09 EDT Received: from life.ai.mit.edu ([128.52.32.80]) by ELI.CS.YALE.EDU; Thu, 24 May 90 07:20:12 EDT Received: from BU.EDU by life.ai.mit.edu (4.1/AI-4.10) id AA24633; Thu, 24 May 90 07:01:26 EDT Received: by BU.EDU (1.98) Thu, 24 May 90 07:01:15 EDT Received: by icad.COM (4.0/SMI-4.0) id AA28004; Thu, 24 May 90 02:15:12 EDT Date: Thu, 24 May 90 02:15:12 EDT From: lcs@icad.com (Larry Stone) Message-Id: <9005240615.AA28004@icad.COM> To: pdp8-lovers@ai.mit.edu Subject: Re: drives Date: Thu, 24 May 90 02:15:12 EDT From: lcs@icad.com (Larry Stone) To: pdp8-lovers@ai.mit.edu Subject: Re: drives > Date: Tue 22 May 90 22:15:36 > From: Johnny Billquist > Subject: Re: drives > > Connecting modern drives to an omnibus eight? Well, there are two aspects > to this. Hardware: Sure, no problems. It is very possible, but you will > probably have to build your own controller, which interface to the omnibus. > The omnibus is quite capable of handling such a device. Most modern disk-drive interfaces are designed to do DMA into system memory. The Omnibus had "data break" I/O, but it looks pretty hairy, and I think it requires an extra data break controller card. Fortunately, I think a SCSI (or SASI - the proto-SCSI) interface can be built using good old programmed I/O, and still be "fast enough". A SCSI disk unit has its own sector buffer, so it can send bytes to the host asynchronously at whatever rate the host wants. > However, software is a pain in the ass. Writing the software -- a standard OS/8 file structured device driver -- is probably the easiest part. I agree that the limitations are a pain, but after being spoiled by tree-structured directories on Unix, I'm not sure that I'd *want* more than 2 meg in a single "directory"! > Has anybody made any plans for an SCSI interface for the eight? > Or any other modern interface for big disks? Yes. I've been thinking hard about a SCSI host adaptor (i.e. a controller board) for the Omnibus. It looks pretty easy to build one out of an NCR 5380 SCSI controller chip. That chip handles all the logic and handshaking on the bus, and presents a much simpler interface to the computer, which fits the PDP-8 programmed I/O model nicely. I roughed out an interface that provides the IOTs a device driver would need. It's easy to get a SCSI disk. I picked up an Adaptec ST506-to-SCSI disk controller (at a hamfest) which can be slapped on top of any cheap 10-Mb drive to create a SCSI disk. Thanks to the PC market, ST506 disks are available and inexpensive. All I need now is the physical platform (a kludge board or Foundation Module), the NCR 5380, and a bunch of free time [the hard part!]. By the way, the Omnibus Foundation Module (M-something, it's in the 1977 logic handbook) is a wonderful board for building a custom interface. It has all the bus drivers and receivers, and a good bit of the decoding logic already done. There is also a generous kludge area with 16-pin *and* wide (24- or 40-pin) DIPs, edge connectors, and 40-pin Berg connectors available on wire-wrap pins. I've got one of these beauties, but my Diablo HyType-I and music interfaces are on it now so they'd need to be torn down and moved to a plain kludge board. I also just picked up a Unibus quad WW kludge board with some 40-pin DIP sockets, which could be adapted. (Don't just plug in blank Unibus kludge boards, though, some power traces may short the wrong lines and need to be cut!). All the Omnibus WW boards I've seen have only 16-pin DIP sockets, so plugging in the SCSI chip would be a pain. Whenever I finally get this done, I'll make all the notes, logic design, and software available. It may be a while, since I just moved and the pdp-8/e is still in pieces! > Date: Wed, 23 May 90 21:01:25 -0500 > From: Danger Mouse > Message-Id: <9005240201.AA19272@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu> > Subject: Re: drives > > I have decided to go a different route, and that's to write an MS-DOS device > driver for the unused PDP-8/e I have. The eight will (hopefully) just see a > terminal ... or maybe I will want my PC to act as the boot device for the PDP, > I don't know yet. I thought about that, too, but didn't have an unused (or any, thankfully!) IBM PC lying around the house. There was a DECUS "VAX driver" for OS/8, but I think it was just a one-shot file transfer program; you open the device and it reads or writes a file on the VAX. I may have the source to this on line, when I get the '8 back together anyway. If you want the PC to supply a file-structured device to the pdp-8, the easiest thing to do might be to link them with a simple parallel (DR8E) or even serial (extra console/TTY board). Have the device driver use a simple protocol (like XMODEM) to get the blocks of a virtual "disk" - a big file on the DOS side. -- Larry Received: from ELI.CS.YALE.EDU by BUGS.SYSTEMSY.CS.YALE.EDU; Thu, 24 May 90 16:04:02 EDT Received: from life.ai.mit.edu by ELI.CS.YALE.EDU; Thu, 24 May 90 15:57:15 EDT Received: from EDDIE.MIT.EDU by life.ai.mit.edu (4.1/AI-4.10) id AA02249; Thu, 24 May 90 15:35:05 EDT Received: by EDDIE.MIT.EDU with UUCP (5.61/25-eef) id AA21605; Thu, 24 May 90 14:33:16 EST Received: by apollo.uucp (smail2.3) id AA03376; 24 May 90 14:29:12 EDT (Thu) Received: by teda.uucp (4.0/SMI-4.0/teda.900622-M) id AA15820; Thu, 24 May 90 10:25:44 PDT Orig-To: pdp8-lovers@ai.mit.edu Rewrite-To: apollo!mit-eddie!ai.mit.edu!pdp8-lovers Return-Path: Received: from teda.DNET by teda.uucp (4.0/SMI-4.0/teda.900622-M) id AA15747; Thu, 24 May 90 10:21:31 PDT Received: from OCEAN.DNET by teda.DNET (DNImail v1.2mcl 900115) id AA15746; Thu, 24 May 90 10:21:31 PDT Date: Thu, 24 May 90 10:21:31 PDT From: teda!bob@eddie.mit.edu (Bob Armstrong at EDA West) Message-Id: <9005241721.AA15746@OCEAN.DNET.teda.uucp> X-Vms-To: TEDA::"ai.mit.edu!pdp8-lovers" To: pdp8-lovers@ai.mit.edu Subject: RE: drives Orig-To: pdp8-lovers@ai.mit.edu Rewrite-To: apollo!mit-eddie!ai.mit.edu!pdp8-lovers Return-Path: Date: Thu, 24 May 90 10:21:31 PDT From: teda!bob@eddie.mit.edu (Bob Armstrong at EDA West) X-Vms-To: TEDA::"ai.mit.edu!pdp8-lovers" To: pdp8-lovers@ai.mit.edu Subject: RE: drives >memory. Has anyone ever tried to cable up the standard small >Winchester drives of today (Seagates, Quantums, MicroScis, etc., ) >to an 8E? Is there any hardware/software reason it cannot be done? How about just buying a DECmate-II ? These have both a ST506 disk controller and a RX50 available, and are quite nice machines. You can get used ones, including the RD5x controller, for less than $1000. And an OS/278 kit, including almost correct sources, is available from DECUS. Do you have other special Omnibus hardware that you can't part with ? Bob Received: from ELI.CS.YALE.EDU by BUGS.SYSTEMSY.CS.YALE.EDU; Mon, 28 May 90 10:35:22 EDT Received: from life.ai.mit.edu by ELI.CS.YALE.EDU; Mon, 28 May 90 10:27:59 EDT Received: from sunic.sunet.se by life.ai.mit.edu (4.1/AI-4.10) id AA12133; Mon, 28 May 90 10:08:12 EDT Received: from AIDA.CSD.UU.SE by sunic.sunet.se (5.61+IDA/KTH/LTH/1.139) id AAsunic04561; Mon, 28 May 90 16:07:55 +0200 Received: from CARMEN.DOCS.UU.SE by AIDA.CSD.UU.SE with TCP; Mon 28 May 90 16:07:28 Date: Mon 28 May 90 16:07:21 From: Johnny Billquist Subject: Re: drives To: lcs@icad.com Cc: pdp8-lovers@ai.mit.edu, D89.JOHNNY-BILLQUIST@carmen.docs.uu.se In-Reply-To: <9005240615.AA28004@icad.COM> Message-Id: <900528160721.24.D89.JOHNNY-BILLQUIST@CARMEN.DOCS.UU.SE> Date: Mon 28 May 90 16:07:21 From: Johnny Billquist Subject: Re: drives To: lcs@icad.com Cc: pdp8-lovers@ai.mit.edu, D89.JOHNNY-BILLQUIST@carmen.docs.uu.se In-Reply-To: <9005240615.AA28004@icad.COM> Date: Thu, 24 May 90 02:15:12 EDT From: lcs@icad.com (Larry Stone) Subject: Re: drives >Most modern disk-drive interfaces are designed to do DMA into system >memory. The Omnibus had "data break" I/O, but it looks pretty hairy, >and I think it requires an extra data break controller card. Hmmm. I don't want to imply something, Larry, but Data Break is the same thing as DMA. More specifically, Data Break is one way to implement DMA. Nowadays it is called cycle stealingg, but it is the same thing. DMA always is a little pain to build, however. >Fortunately, I think a SCSI (or SASI - the proto-SCSI) interface can be >built using good old programmed I/O, and still be "fast enough". A >SCSI disk unit has its own sector buffer, so it can send bytes to the >host asynchronously at whatever rate the host wants. If SCSI interfaces are possible to make program controlled might be true, dec built the "modern" DECtape controller as a program controlled device. However, there are some serious setbacks with this design. You cannot allow interrupts with this design, and since I'm interested in writing a "nice" operating system, or using one of the existing multiuser OS, I cannot seriously consider that approach. I believe that designing a Data Break interface nowadays should not be to hard. There are advanced circuits available to simplify things. >Writing the software -- a standard OS/8 file structured device driver -- >is probably the easiest part. I agree that the limitations are a pain, >but after being spoiled by tree-structured directories on Unix, I'm not >sure that I'd *want* more than 2 meg in a single "directory"! Well, I was thinking of something other than OS/8. I agree that I don't need more than 2 meg in one directory, but MULTOS has several directories on one disk, for example. > It looks pretty easy to build one >out of an NCR 5380 SCSI controller chip. That chip handles all the >logic and handshaking on the bus, and presents a much simpler interface >to the computer, which fits the PDP-8 programmed I/O model nicely. I >roughed out an interface that provides the IOTs a device driver would need. Does that chip supply and DMA signals? >It's easy to get a SCSI disk. I picked up an Adaptec ST506-to-SCSI disk >controller (at a hamfest) which can be slapped on top of any cheap 10-Mb >drive to create a SCSI disk. Thanks to the PC market, ST506 disks >are available and inexpensive. Since I already have en RL8-A controller, I can already use 10 meg disks. What I would like is something with atleast 30 meg, preferrably more... >By the way, the Omnibus Foundation Module (M-something, it's in the 1977 >logic handbook) is a wonderful board for building a custom interface. >It has all the bus drivers and receivers, and a good bit of the decoding >logic already done. There is also a generous kludge area with 16-pin >*and* wide (24- or 40-pin) DIPs, edge connectors, and 40-pin Berg >connectors available on wire-wrap pins. I've got one of these beauties, >but my Diablo HyType-I and music interfaces are on it now so they'd need >to be torn down and moved to a plain kludge board. I'd like to get my hands on a board like that. However, it is only usable for programmed I/O operations, and maybe interrupt (I'm not sure). >Whenever I finally get this done, I'll make all the notes, logic design, >and software available. It may be a while, since I just moved >and the pdp-8/e is still in pieces! I hope you get to it. I'd like to see what comes out of it. > There was a DECUS "VAX >driver" for OS/8, but I think it was just a one-shot file transfer >program; you open the device and it reads or writes a file on the VAX. >I may have the source to this on line, when I get the '8 back together anyway. Yup. The device driver had some special handling when block 0 was addressed (my guess), which sent a DCL command over the serial line, either typing a file, or copying TTY: to a file. The close operation made the device driver send a ^Z. Pretty easy to write. > -- Larry ====================================================================== Everybody know that the DECstation - I'm on a bus is a pdp8, which is a RISC, but - on a psychodelic trip, where did MIPS computers get into it? - reading murder books - and tryin' to stay hip. - Johnny Billquist - Billy Idol D89.JOHNNY-BILLQUIST@AIDA.CSD.UU.SE D89.JOHNNY-BILLQUIST@CARMEN.DOCS.UU.SE ====================================================================== Received: from ELI.CS.YALE.EDU by BUGS.SYSTEMSY.CS.YALE.EDU; Mon, 28 May 90 10:39:28 EDT Received: from life.ai.mit.edu by ELI.CS.YALE.EDU; Mon, 28 May 90 10:36:26 EDT Received: from sunic.sunet.se by life.ai.mit.edu (4.1/AI-4.10) id AA12246; Mon, 28 May 90 10:17:11 EDT Received: from AIDA.CSD.UU.SE by sunic.sunet.se (5.61+IDA/KTH/LTH/1.139) id AAsunic04987; Mon, 28 May 90 16:16:55 +0200 Received: from CARMEN.DOCS.UU.SE by AIDA.CSD.UU.SE with TCP; Mon 28 May 90 16:16:28 Date: Mon 28 May 90 16:16:25 From: Johnny Billquist Subject: RE: drives To: bob%teda@eddie.mit.edu Cc: pdp8-lovers@ai.mit.edu, D89.JOHNNY-BILLQUIST@carmen.docs.uu.se In-Reply-To: <9005241721.AA15746@OCEAN.DNET.teda.uucp> Message-Id: <900528161625.24.D89.JOHNNY-BILLQUIST@CARMEN.DOCS.UU.SE> Date: Mon 28 May 90 16:16:25 From: Johnny Billquist Subject: RE: drives To: bob%teda@eddie.mit.edu Cc: pdp8-lovers@ai.mit.edu, D89.JOHNNY-BILLQUIST@carmen.docs.uu.se In-Reply-To: <9005241721.AA15746@OCEAN.DNET.teda.uucp> Date: Thu, 24 May 90 10:21:31 PDT From: teda!bob@eddie.mit.edu (Bob Armstrong at EDA West) To: pdp8-lovers@ai.mit.edu > How about just buying a DECmate-II ? These have both a ST506 disk >controller and a RX50 available, and are quite nice machines. You can >get used ones, including the RD5x controller, for less than $1000. And >an OS/278 kit, including almost correct sources, is available from DECUS. The DECmate II uses the CMOS-8, by Harris or Intersil. This machine is not an Omnibus machine, but has its own special multiplexed bus (I believe). >Bob ====================================================================== Everybody know that the DECstation - I'm on a bus is a pdp8, which is a RISC, but - on a psychodelic trip, where did MIPS computers get into it? - reading murder books - and tryin' to stay hip. - Johnny Billquist - Billy Idol D89.JOHNNY-BILLQUIST@AIDA.CSD.UU.SE D89.JOHNNY-BILLQUIST@CARMEN.DOCS.UU.SE ====================================================================== Received: from ELI.CS.YALE.EDU by BUGS.SYSTEMSY.CS.YALE.EDU; Mon, 28 May 90 11:02:05 EDT Received: from life.ai.mit.edu by ELI.CS.YALE.EDU; Mon, 28 May 90 11:00:25 EDT Received: from sunic.sunet.se by life.ai.mit.edu (4.1/AI-4.10) id AA12353; Mon, 28 May 90 10:39:35 EDT Received: from AIDA.CSD.UU.SE by sunic.sunet.se (5.61+IDA/KTH/LTH/1.140) id AAsunic05654; Mon, 28 May 90 16:39:17 +0200 Received: from CARMEN.DOCS.UU.SE by AIDA.CSD.UU.SE with TCP; Mon 28 May 90 16:38:51 Date: Mon 28 May 90 16:38:49 From: Johnny Billquist Subject: Subdirectories for OS/8... To: pdp8-lovers@ai.mit.edu Message-Id: <900528163849.24.D89.JOHNNY-BILLQUIST@CARMEN.DOCS.UU.SE> Date: Mon 28 May 90 16:38:49 From: Johnny Billquist Subject: Subdirectories for OS/8... To: pdp8-lovers@ai.mit.edu In case anybody is interested, I have a subdirectory program and device driver for OS/8. This is something for you who thinks the diskspace is too large. It works in the following way: You create a file (a few 100 blocks or so) on SYS or other resident device. The program configures the SFD: driver for the proper directory, and modifies PIP and RESORC accordingly. The SFD: driver is then a filestructured device, which can be zero:d, and so forth. It works, but is very crude. If anybody is intersted, I can post it here. Note: You can have several subdirectories, but you cannot nest them. ====================================================================== Everybody know that the DECstation - I'm on a bus is a pdp8, which is a RISC, but - on a psychodelic trip, where did MIPS computers get into it? - reading murder books - and tryin' to stay hip. - Johnny Billquist - Billy Idol D89.JOHNNY-BILLQUIST@AIDA.CSD.UU.SE D89.JOHNNY-BILLQUIST@CARMEN.DOCS.UU.SE ====================================================================== Received: from ELI.CS.YALE.EDU by BUGS.SYSTEMSY.CS.YALE.EDU; Mon, 28 May 90 11:02:11 EDT Received: from life.ai.mit.edu by ELI.CS.YALE.EDU; Mon, 28 May 90 10:59:10 EDT Received: from sunic.sunet.se by life.ai.mit.edu (4.1/AI-4.10) id AA12314; Mon, 28 May 90 10:33:17 EDT Received: from AIDA.CSD.UU.SE by sunic.sunet.se (5.61+IDA/KTH/LTH/1.140) id AAsunic05452; Mon, 28 May 90 16:33:00 +0200 Received: from CARMEN.DOCS.UU.SE by AIDA.CSD.UU.SE with TCP; Mon 28 May 90 16:32:33 Date: Mon 28 May 90 16:32:29 From: Johnny Billquist Subject: Re: Small disks To: wally@aerospace.aero.org, pdp8-lovers@ai.mit.edu Cc: d89.johnny-BILLQUIST@carmen.docs.uu.se In-Reply-To: <9005251531.AA29520@aerospace.aero.org> Message-Id: <900528163229.24.D89.JOHNNY-BILLQUIST@CARMEN.DOCS.UU.SE> Date: Mon 28 May 90 16:32:29 From: Johnny Billquist Subject: Re: Small disks To: wally@aerospace.aero.org, pdp8-lovers@ai.mit.edu Cc: d89.johnny-BILLQUIST@carmen.docs.uu.se In-Reply-To: <9005251531.AA29520@aerospace.aero.org> Hi, Wally.. Since you didn't manage to send you letter to pdp8-lovers, I'm sending it for you, along with some comments of my own. >Return-Path: >Posted-Date: Fri, 25 May 90 08:31:13 -0700 >Message-Id: <9005251531.AA29520@aerospace.aero.org> >To: D89.Johnny-Billquist@CARMEN.DOCS.UU.SE >Subject: Re: Small disks >Date: Fri, 25 May 90 08:31:13 -0700 >From: wally@aerospace.aero.org > >There seems to be a flurry of interest in IBM style disks for the '8'. >I got your comments on that and thought I'd throw in a little. Maybe >it should all go to PDP8LOVERS or however you manage to send it to >everybody. I don't know for sure just who was interrested in this. >Anyway, the disks (10-30 megs) can be purchsed new for around $200 >here. A controller is $100 or so. A person could mount the controller >on another board with the unibus terminals to fit into the backplane >of the 8 and then with a little interface circuitry, go into the '8'. >Also of course, your suggestion of bying the interface chips and >doing the whole thing from scratch. I believe that making a DMA >interface is no more difficult than making a programed I/O type. I >have the specifications handy for either. If anybody should want to >try somthing like this, I would be glad to become involved a little. >I have access to the ALTERA PLD system which allows 7400 logic to be >packed into PLD's evean a small PLD will easily replace a dozen or so >7400 logic chips and the little ones cost about $10.00 each. I'm pretty interested in making a SCSI DMA controller for the OMNIBUS. Unfortenately, I'm living in Sweden, so I will probably be of more moral than physical support. However, I think that designing a controller would be a nice project, which some more people would be interested in. As I have said earlier (to Wally at least), another project I would be intersted in would be a four or eight line serial TTY controller. I have some ideas about this. If enough people are interested in this, we could maybe work something out. ====================================================================== Everybody know that the DECstation - I'm on a bus is a pdp8, which is a RISC, but - on a psychodelic trip, where did MIPS computers get into it? - reading murder books - and tryin' to stay hip. - Johnny Billquist - Billy Idol D89.JOHNNY-BILLQUIST@AIDA.CSD.UU.SE D89.JOHNNY-BILLQUIST@CARMEN.DOCS.UU.SE ====================================================================== Received: from ELI.CS.YALE.EDU by BUGS.SYSTEMSY.CS.YALE.EDU; Mon, 28 May 90 11:29:26 EDT Received: from life.ai.mit.edu by ELI.CS.YALE.EDU; Mon, 28 May 90 11:28:21 EDT Received: from sunic.sunet.se by life.ai.mit.edu (4.1/AI-4.10) id AA11907; Mon, 28 May 90 09:40:01 EDT Received: from AIDA.CSD.UU.SE by sunic.sunet.se (5.61+IDA/KTH/LTH/1.139) id AAsunic03505; Mon, 28 May 90 15:39:44 +0200 Received: from CARMEN.DOCS.UU.SE by AIDA.CSD.UU.SE with TCP; Mon 28 May 90 15:39:14 Date: Mon 28 May 90 15:38:38 From: Johnny Billquist Subject: Re: drives To: leh10377@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu Cc: gfrajkor@ccs.carleton.ca, -v@ccs.carleton.ca, pdp8-lovers@ai.mit.edu, D89.JOHNNY-BILLQUIST@carmen.docs.uu.se In-Reply-To: <9005240201.AA19272@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu> Message-Id: <900528153838.24.D89.JOHNNY-BILLQUIST@CARMEN.DOCS.UU.SE> Date: Mon 28 May 90 15:38:38 From: Johnny Billquist Subject: Re: drives To: leh10377@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu Cc: gfrajkor@ccs.carleton.ca, -v@ccs.carleton.ca, pdp8-lovers@ai.mit.edu, D89.JOHNNY-BILLQUIST@carmen.docs.uu.se In-Reply-To: <9005240201.AA19272@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu> Hi, Loren. >I have decided to go a different route, and that's to write an MS-DOS device >driver for the unused PDP-8/e I have. The eight will (hopefully) just see a >terminal ... or maybe I will want my PC to act as the boot device for the PDP, >I don't know yet. > >Has anyone done anything like this yet? I have some old DECUS 12bit sig letters, and in one of these there is an article about using DECtape II on a pdp8. The DECtape II is a device which is connected via RS-232. It is smaller than standard DECtape, but bears much resemblance otherwise. I believe this is something a little like what you are thinking of. The one who connected DECtape II to a pdp8, connected it via a KL8-E, and wrote a two page device driver for the eight, which worked fine. I can check things up a little more, if you are interested. >+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+ >| Loren E. Heal | Internet: leheal@uiuc.edu (from *net, you figure it out) | >|(Not a spokesman for the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) | >|(I may work there, but I still own my own mind!) | >+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+ ====================================================================== Everybody know that the DECstation - I'm on a bus is a pdp8, which is a RISC, but - on a psychodelic trip, where did MIPS computers get into it? - reading murder books - and tryin' to stay hip. - Johnny Billquist - Billy Idol D89.JOHNNY-BILLQUIST@AIDA.CSD.UU.SE D89.JOHNNY-BILLQUIST@CARMEN.DOCS.UU.SE ======================================================================