From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on inbox.vuxu.org X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=0.1 required=5.0 tests=LOTS_OF_MONEY, MAILING_LIST_MULTI,MONEY_NOHTML,T_SCC_BODY_TEXT_LINE autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 Received: (qmail 20740 invoked from network); 21 Dec 2023 17:48:22 -0000 Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (2600:3c01:e000:146::1) by inbox.vuxu.org with ESMTPUTF8; 21 Dec 2023 17:48:22 -0000 Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (localhost [IPv6:::1]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E9F2943F35; Fri, 22 Dec 2023 03:48:17 +1000 (AEST) Received: from mail.ultimate.com (mail.ultimate.com [IPv6:2607:fc50:0:15::100]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 95ADE43F33 for ; Fri, 22 Dec 2023 03:48:11 +1000 (AEST) Received: from ultimate.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by mail.ultimate.com (8.17.1/8.17.1) with ESMTPS id 3BLHm9qY017981 (version=TLSv1.3 cipher=TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 bits=256 verify=NO); Thu, 21 Dec 2023 12:48:10 -0500 (EST) (envelope-from phil@ultimate.com) Received: (from phil@localhost) by ultimate.com (8.17.1/8.17.1/Submit) id 3BLHm9MC017980; Thu, 21 Dec 2023 12:48:09 -0500 (EST) (envelope-from phil) From: Phil Budne Message-Id: <202312211748.3BLHm9MC017980@ultimate.com> Date: Thu, 21 Dec 2023 12:48:09 -0500 To: tuhs@tuhs.org References: <7w34vy3ar2.fsf@junk.nocrew.org> In-Reply-To: <7w34vy3ar2.fsf@junk.nocrew.org> User-Agent: Heirloom mailx 12.4 7/29/08 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Message-ID-Hash: GEM5ZSNTBRFJJWZIOFAQNIBTJ4WLDWA4 X-Message-ID-Hash: GEM5ZSNTBRFJJWZIOFAQNIBTJ4WLDWA4 X-MailFrom: phil@ultimate.com X-Mailman-Rule-Misses: dmarc-mitigation; no-senders; approved; emergency; loop; banned-address; member-moderation; nonmember-moderation; administrivia; implicit-dest; max-recipients; max-size; news-moderation; no-subject; digests; suspicious-header X-Mailman-Version: 3.3.6b1 Precedence: list Subject: [TUHS] Re: PDP-7 and Interdata 8/32 Bell System UNIX Installations? List-Id: The Unix Heritage Society mailing list Archived-At: List-Archive: List-Help: List-Owner: List-Post: List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: Lars Brinkhoff wrote: > The back story here is approximately something like the PDP-7 being left > over from development of William Ninke's Graphic II display systen done > in cooperation with DEC. The fast fixed-head disk on the UNIX PDP-7 seems to have been the RB09 for the upcomming PDP-9, and it's been my surmise that the PDP-7 was likely used until PDP-9s were available for "production" Graphic II workstations. I seem to recall the DEC Field Service list for 18-bit systems only showed the one PDP-7, but multiple PDP-9's equipped with an RB09. While working on the PDP-7 UNIX resuscitation (I wrote a stand-in for the shell, which served until the listings for utilities from the second half of the alphabet were found and scanned) I once booted UNIX on under SimH PDP-9 simulation. I believe the same (Burroughs?) disk was used as the RD10 on PDP-10 systems as a swap device. https://archive.org/details/TNM_PDP-10_computer_price_list_1967_20180205_0300/page/n1/mode/2up shows the RD10 subsystem was $32,500 in 1967. https://gunkies.org/wiki/PDP-9 says an 8K system was $30K and that a PDP-7 was $72K. I don't doubt the custom Graphic II hardware was costly as well. The Graphic II project seems to have been well funded, and the demo videos I've seen show the Graphic systems were meant for doing "real" (telephone network) related work (I remember seeing one on filter design), so I imagine the PDP-9 Graphic II systems were in use during regular work hours. The Graphic II systems had modem links to a (GE635?) mainframe, so it's _possible_ the disk was only used for fast/temporary storage, and it wouldn't matter if someone booted UNIX after hours... Ah... I found the simh .ini file I used: phil@phil-nb9:~$ ls -l /home/phil/pdp7-unix/build/pdp9.simh -rw-rw-r-- 1 phil phil 613 Mar 27 2016 /home/phil/pdp7-unix/build/pdp9.simh phil@phil-nb9:~$ cat !$ cat /home/phil/pdp7-unix/build/pdp9.simh set cpu 8k set cpu eae #set cpu history=100 show cpu # set up SIMH devices: # UNIX character translations (CR to NL, ESC to ALTMODE): set tti unix # RB09 fixed head disk: set rb ena att rb image.fs # uncomment to TELNET in GRAPHICS-2 keyboard/display(!!) # (requires github.com/philbudne/simh) #set g2in ena #att -U g2in 12345 # disable hardware UNIX-7 doesn't know about: set lpt disa set drm disa set dt disa # PDP-9 hardware set ttix disa set ttox disa set mt disa set rf disa # show device settings: show dev # load and run the paper tape bootstrap # (loads system from disk) load boot.rim 010000