On Thu, Aug 6, 2015 at 9:27 AM, Jay Jaeger <cu...@charter.net> wrote: > The PDP-10 had a PDP-11 console processor.
The early PDP-10 models used the KA10 and KI10 CPUs, which did not have any separate processor for console/boot/diagnostics. It was common, however, to have a PDP-8 based communication subsystem, such as the 680 or 680I. The later models, using the KL10 and KS10 main CPUs, had console processors. The KL10 used a PDP-11/40 console processor, which had special access to the KL10 diagnostic data paths, and an RH11 Massbus adapter to a dual-port of one of the RP06 drives. In a DECsystem-10, it also had DECtape or floppy, and only handled boot, diagnostics, and the console terminal (usually an LA36 DECwriter). In a DECSYSTEM-20, it had floppy, and also handled additional terminals and unit-record equipment. KL10-based DECsystem-10 configurations and larger KL10-based DECsystem20 configurations tended to have additional PDP-11 communication processors; all but the smallest KL10 CPU configurations could support up to four DTE20 (DEC Ten to Eleven) Unibuses, one of which was for the PDP-11/40 console processor. The KS10 used an 8080-based console subsystem for the same purposes.
