From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: rdkeys@unity.ncsu.edu (rdkeys@unity.ncsu.edu) Date: Wed, 31 May 2000 15:50:10 -0400 (EDT) Subject: What to look for in a PDP machine? In-Reply-To: <200005311918.PAA23647@uni03du.unity.ncsu.edu> from "rdkeys@unity.ncsu.edu" at May 31, 2000 03:18:41 PM Message-ID: <200005311950.PAA25124@uni02du.unity.ncsu.edu> > Interesting, there may be a PDPsomethingorother machine come available in > surplus here. A quick glance at it showed it to be in a 1/2 height rack, > with some custom name that meant nothing to me. But, it had two rack > cabinets about 6 inches high each, with definite looking DEC cards, > 4 wide cards, with an interconnecting cable between the two cases. > The thing had a half gig scsi drive and scsi tape (60 or 150mb). > Alas, I was able only to make a quick glance at it, before I had to > leave. What might such a critter actually be? It had half a dozen > RS232 terminal lines out the back, and a wyse terminal sitting on top > of the case. It is not the kind of thing the PeeCee mongers are going > to dive into, so it might go for a song if I wait a couple of weeks. > It was not DEC badged, but definitely had what I would interpret as > DEC boards inside. Revisitation of the thing (my curiosity got the better of me and it was only a couple blocks away), yields some more info. A tag on the back says it is a scsi upgrade for a Digital Bright V. The ID plate says it is a Model BF-111/64. Examination of the cards indicated it was full of Perception Technologies cards rather than DEC cards, with what looks like modem transformers on them (10 cards and 80 ports?). Is this a telephone system of some sort? The drive cabinet had a panel on it with: RDY 1 WP RDY 0 WP HALT RESTART DCOK RUN buttons on it. That seems DECish. The rest, I dunno. Anyone have any ideas as to what it might be? Thanks Bob Received: (from major at localhost) by minnie.cs.adfa.edu.au (8.9.3/8.9.3) id GAA79679 for pups-liszt; Thu, 1 Jun 2000 06:01:29 +1000 (EST) (envelope-from owner-pups at minnie.cs.adfa.edu.au) Received: from timaxp.trailing-edge.com (timaxp.trailing-edge.com [63.73.218.130]) by minnie.cs.adfa.edu.au (8.9.3/8.9.3) with SMTP id GAA79675 for ; Thu, 1 Jun 2000 06:01:25 +1000 (EST) (envelope-from SHOPPA at timaxp.trailing-edge.com) Received: by timaxp.trailing-edge.com for PUPS at MINNIE.CS.ADFA.EDU.AU; Wed, 31 May 2000 16:00:03 -0400 Date: Wed, 31 May 2000 16:00:03 -0400 From: Tim Shoppa To: PUPS at minnie.cs.adfa.edu.au Message-Id: <000531160003.202005cb at trailing-edge.com> Subject: Re: What to look for in a PDP machine? Sender: owner-pups at minnie.cs.adfa.edu.au Precedence: bulk >The drive cabinet had a panel on it with: > > RDY 1 WP > RDY 0 WP > HALT RESTART > DCOK RUN > >buttons on it. That seems DECish. It sounds like a BA23, the DEC standard 8-slot Q-bus chassis. >Anyone have any ideas as to what it might be? Q-bus CPU's can be anything from a PDP-11/03 up to a Microvax, and even some third-party CPU's with odd things like 68000's and Z80's on them. You really gotta look in the CPU box and find the CPU board to determine what it is. The badge on the front of the BA23 may bear no relation to what's installed in it. If it is an -11, it's very likely an 11/73, /83 or 11/93, possibly a 11/23. -- Tim Shoppa Email: shoppa at trailing-edge.com Trailing Edge Technology WWW: http://www.trailing-edge.com/ 7328 Bradley Blvd Voice: 301-767-5917 Bethesda, MD, USA 20817 Fax: 301-767-5927 Received: (from major at localhost) by minnie.cs.adfa.edu.au (8.9.3/8.9.3) id GAA79693 for pups-liszt; Thu, 1 Jun 2000 06:05:52 +1000 (EST) (envelope-from owner-pups at minnie.cs.adfa.edu.au) Received: from neimail.networkengines.com (wks7.networkengines.com [64.55.6.7] (may be forged)) by minnie.cs.adfa.edu.au (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id GAA79689 for ; Thu, 1 Jun 2000 06:05:48 +1000 (EST) (envelope-from andy.sporner at networkengines.com) Received: by neimail.networkengines.com with Internet Mail Service (5.5.2650.21) id ; Wed, 31 May 2000 16:01:38 -0400 Message-ID: <8D18C4F9CBA1D311900F00A0C990C97F67C896 at neimail.networkengines.com> From: Andy Sporner To: "'rdkeys at unity.ncsu.edu'" , pups at minnie.cs.adfa.edu.au Subject: RE: What to look for in a PDP machine? Date: Wed, 31 May 2000 16:01:37 -0400 MIME-Version: 1.0 X-Mailer: Internet Mail Service (5.5.2650.21) Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Sender: owner-pups at minnie.cs.adfa.edu.au Precedence: bulk Could be any number of things... The cable is probably a bus connector and the cabinet in the other rack is an expansion cabinet. What you are looking at could be a PDP 11/05 (I used to have one), although since you didn't mention there being a row of switches across the front, probably not. There are so many different possibilities. If you could describe the front of the boxes that are in the rack it would be very helpful. The PDP 11 possibilities and fit in a 5 1/4" (half box) would be a pdp 11/05 (with a row of white keys (16 of them), a pdp 11/23 (which is mostly white with 3 white keys in a small inset area) and others that might have a rotary switch or perhaps a telephone-like keypad). Otherwise I would wonder if it is even a DEC machine... If it has an orange lighted rocker switch it might be any number of later Q-BUS machines.... (and probably so if this has a SCSI device). Andy > -----Original Message----- > From: rdkeys at unity.ncsu.edu [mailto:rdkeys at unity.ncsu.edu] > Sent: Wednesday, May 31, 2000 3:19 PM > To: pups at minnie.cs.adfa.edu.au > Cc: rdkeys at unity.ncsu.edu > Subject: What to look for in a PDP machine? > > > Interesting, there may be a PDPsomethingorother machine come > available in > surplus here. A quick glance at it showed it to be in a 1/2 > height rack, > with some custom name that meant nothing to me. But, it had two rack > cabinets about 6 inches high each, with definite looking DEC cards, > 4 wide cards, with an interconnecting cable between the two cases. > The thing had a half gig scsi drive and scsi tape (60 or 150mb). > Alas, I was able only to make a quick glance at it, before I had to > leave. What might such a critter actually be? It had half a dozen > RS232 terminal lines out the back, and a wyse terminal sitting on top > of the case. It is not the kind of thing the PeeCee mongers are going > to dive into, so it might go for a song if I wait a couple of weeks. > It was not DEC badged, but definitely had what I would interpret as > DEC boards inside. > > Bob > > > Received: (from major at localhost) by minnie.cs.adfa.edu.au (8.9.3/8.9.3) id KAA80887 for pups-liszt; Thu, 1 Jun 2000 10:26:51 +1000 (EST) (envelope-from owner-pups at minnie.cs.adfa.edu.au) Received: from henry.cs.adfa.edu.au (henry.cs.adfa.edu.au [131.236.21.158]) by minnie.cs.adfa.edu.au (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id KAA80883 for ; Thu, 1 Jun 2000 10:26:49 +1000 (EST) (envelope-from wkt at henry.cs.adfa.edu.au) Received: (from wkt at localhost) by henry.cs.adfa.edu.au (8.9.2/8.9.3) id KAA49471 for pups at minnie.cs.adfa.edu.au; Thu, 1 Jun 2000 10:25:34 +1000 (EST) (envelope-from wkt) From: Warren Toomey Message-Id: <200006010025.KAA49471 at henry.cs.adfa.edu.au> Subject: Future Direction for PUPS and UHS To: pups at minnie.cs.adfa.edu.au (Unix Heritage Society) Date: Thu, 1 Jun 2000 10:25:34 +1000 (EST) Reply-To: wkt at cs.adfa.edu.au X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4ME+ PL43 (25)] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-pups at minnie.cs.adfa.edu.au Precedence: bulk All, A discussion has started up on the PUPS volunteers list about the future direction we should take in terms of the PUPS Archive. For those people new to this list, here's a bit of background. Originally I set up the PDP-11 UNIX Preservation Society, the mailing list and the Archive as that was my interest. Since then, we've attracted people with interests in other Unixes, such as the 4BSDs, and other hardware platforms such as the Vax, the 68k Suns etc. A while back, I changed the charter of the mailing list to encompass any Unix-related questions, epecially to those systems which are now treated as `ancient' by the mainstream, even if they are being maintained (e.g 2.11BSD and the Quasijarus project). I also tried to create an umbrella organisation, the Unix Heritage Society (http://minnie.cs.adfa.edu.au/TUHS/), which would allow a number of groups like PUPS and Quasijarus to form, and so that we could co-ordinate their efforts. I must admit I haven't put much effort into this idea. Now, the PUPS Archive (PUPS in name, but it contains lots more than PDP-11 stuff) is accumulating more and more stuff. Some people want to see a mainly PDP-11 archive, other want to try and archive everything before it goes off to /dev/null. So, I want to survey the mailing list here for ideas about the charter of the Unix Heritage Society, and a way of setting up one or multiple archives, mailing lists, web pages etc. as I originally envisioned. Questions: - should we keep one archive, or have multiple archives? - if one, what structure (divisions on platforms, on vendors etc.) - if you have a keen interest in one platform/system, would you consider becoming the leader of an interest group that could sit under the Unix Heritage Society umbrella? - do you want to set up and maintain a more specific archive, mailing list, web site, that the Unix Heritage Society could point to? - do you want this current mailing list to stay ``all-encompassing'', or would you rather have more specific lists? One final comment before you answer. There's a very diverse bunch of people on this mailing list, some with strong opinions. Please be prepared to accept someone's comments as what they want, don't tell them that they are wrong, but let us know what you'd like to see. Many thanks, Warren [ now stands back for the deluge! ] Received: (from major at localhost) by minnie.cs.adfa.edu.au (8.9.3/8.9.3) id CAA84679 for pups-liszt; Fri, 2 Jun 2000 02:56:00 +1000 (EST) (envelope-from owner-pups at minnie.cs.adfa.edu.au) Received: from relay01.chello.nl (smtp.chello.nl [212.83.68.144]) by minnie.cs.adfa.edu.au (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id CAA84675 for ; Fri, 2 Jun 2000 02:55:55 +1000 (EST) (envelope-from wkb at chello.nl) Received: from chello.nl ([213.46.78.184]) by relay01.chello.nl (InterMail vK.4.02.00.00 201-232-116 license 2ee4e7c625482f2f2a1950a80f6c8d58) with ESMTP id <20000601165436.JAHT13246.relay01 at chello.nl>; Thu, 1 Jun 2000 18:54:36 +0200 Received: (from wkb at localhost) by chello.nl (8.9.3/8.9.3) id SAA99179; Thu, 1 Jun 2000 18:53:57 +0200 (CEST) (envelope-from wkb) Date: Thu, 1 Jun 2000 18:53:57 +0200 From: Wilko Bulte To: Warren Toomey Cc: Unix Heritage Society Subject: Re: Future Direction for PUPS and UHS Message-ID: <20000601185357.E99044 at freebie.wbnet> Reply-To: wc.bulte at chello.nl References: <200006010025.KAA49471 at henry.cs.adfa.edu.au> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline User-Agent: Mutt/1.2i In-Reply-To: <200006010025.KAA49471 at henry.cs.adfa.edu.au>; from wkt at cs.adfa.edu.au on Thu, Jun 01, 2000 at 10:25:34AM +1000 X-OS: FreeBSD 4.0-STABLE X-PGP: finger wilko at freebsd.org Sender: owner-pups at minnie.cs.adfa.edu.au Precedence: bulk On Thu, Jun 01, 2000 at 10:25:34AM +1000, Warren Toomey wrote: > So, I want to survey the mailing list here for ideas about the charter of > the Unix Heritage Society, and a way of setting up one or multiple archives, > mailing lists, web pages etc. as I originally envisioned. > > Questions: > - should we keep one archive, or have multiple archives? Multiple. > - if one, what structure (divisions on platforms, on vendors etc.) I'd distinguish by CPU / machine / vendor. Eg. PDP, VAX, Sun68k, etc. Maybe one should also distinguish by source code / binary-only. People like David are mostly interested in the sources, which I think makes good sense. But if you find yourself with an old box a binary kit sure beats no OS at all. > - do you want this current mailing list to stay ``all-encompassing'', > or would you rather have more specific lists? Depends on the traffic. One could argue a generic 'announce' list and a set of platform dependent lists would be best. But maybe it is too early to nail this down. > One final comment before you answer. There's a very diverse bunch of > people on this mailing list, some with strong opinions. Please be prepared > to accept someone's comments as what they want, don't tell them that they > are wrong, but let us know what you'd like to see. > > Many thanks, > Warren > > [ now stands back for the deluge! ] ;-) -- Wilko Bulte FreeBSD, the power to serve http://www.freebsd.org