From mboxrd@z Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970
From: norman@oclsc.org (Norman Wilson)
Date: Thu, 18 Nov 2010 13:57:52 -0500 (EST)
Subject: [TUHS] pdp11 question
Message-ID: <1290106759.945.for-standards-violators@oclsc.org>

Just to loop things around a bit:

Some of the larger VAXes used small PDP-11s (and their
bastard offspring) as console processors.

This started with the very first VAX, the 11/780, which
used an 11/23 as a console.  The console ran a stripped-down
system, possibly based on RT-11 or RSX-11, I forget (and
am typing this on a train in the Outer Mongolia part of
Texas where it's hard to look up references).

I don't know the whole list of what was used as a console
for different VAXes, but I do remember that the Nautilus
series (8500-8550-8700-8800) used either a Pro/350 or a
Pro/380, running P/OS, which was slightly more satisfactory
than the rude English non-computer expansion of PoS might
imply, but only slightly.  Especially for those of us who
wrote code to fit into UNIX on the VAX and talk to the
console processor.

I also vaguely remember that although Digital were
reluctant (at least early on) to make an RT-11 that would
run on the Pro-series systems, someone made a UNIX for
those systems.

I never knew a lot about this stuff and have forgotten much
of what I did know, but perhaps my words will trigger others'
memories.

Norman Wilson
Toronto ON