[TUHS] Re: Of /dev/tty8

[Larry McVoy <lm@mcvoy.com>]

On Mon, Mar 18, 2024 at 10:58:04AM -0400, Paul Winalski wrote:
> On Mon, Mar 18, 2024 at 9:57???AM Clem Cole <clemc@ccc.com> wrote:
> 
> > The DZ11 is an eight-port mux (with short pinned modem control and no DMA
> > - both causing issues).
> >
> 
> I'm pretty sure that when we beta tested the VAX-11/780 in the summer of
> 1977 it had a DZ11.  We only had a few LA36 printing terminals on it so we
> never saw any issues with it.  Not so when I started work at DEC in 1980.
> The VAX-11/780 I worked on had IIRC three DZ11a supporting 24 terminals.
> The lack of DMA was a big issue.  We had to run our VT52s no faster than
> 300 baud or it brought the system to its knees.

I was one of about 40 students working on a terminal hooked to a 780.
I put up with it for a semester and then bought a 4mhz 128KB Z80
CPM machine.  It was not that fast but it was all mine.  I was more
productive on the Z80.

I got a $2000 loan to buy it.  Taught me that I really really hated to
owe the bank.