Re: [TUHS] Will pdp 11/04 run unix?

[Clem Cole <clemc@ccc.com>]

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PDP 11/04, like 11/03,11/05, 11/15, 11/20 lacks an MMU.    So the
traditional releases from Research, USG, UCB will not boot.
That said, V1 which ran without it might work with some tweeking as they
did not yet have one.  And if you could find a KS-11 MMU that Ken and
Dennis had for the 11/20 (which was designed by DEC CSS), theoretically
next versions could be made to run.   The problem is that while many of us
have looked a: we can not find a KS-11 in real life (CSS did make that
many), b: we can't even find documentation about it (Ken's surviving code
is the best doc we have).

FYI:  go to bitsavers and download a copy of the PDP-11 Processor
Handbook, but note the data.  You probably will want (at least) both
an early and a later one, as the later ones often dropped details about
some of the models that were not being manufactured.   For instance, I have
a couple of different ones, and the '78 version really one talks about
04/34/45/55/60 - the previous processors like 03/15/40 are not included.
So you need an early 70's version to include them, and later versions for
the 44/90 etc.

BTW:  Page 4 of same, have a graphic showing the HW requirements for the
DEC OS's. On the X-axis is the OS, the Y axis the model.  RT-11, MUMPS-11,
RSX-11M, RS-11S are the only OS's that were supported for the 04.

Here is a hint, if the processor could not support RSTS, it is unlikely it
could support UNIX.



On Thu, Jul 30, 2020 at 9:17 AM Will Senn <will.senn@gmail.com> wrote:

> The question is can I run Unix on a PDP 11/04? I've dug around and it's
> unclear to me, so I'm asking y'all.
>
> Will
>
> --
> GPG Fingerprint: 68F4 B3BD 1730 555A 4462  7D45 3EAA 5B6D A982 BAAF
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