> So, the CHM has an RSTS-11 brochure: > > > http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/text/DEC/pdp-11/Digital.PDP-11.1970.102646128.pdf > > which shows in a couple of places (front cover, page 6, 7, 10, 11) an > indicator panel which I haven't been able to identify: it's the one where > there are four full-length light rows on the left, and the lower right row > of lights is broken up in the three groups - small, large, small. (The other > indicator panel is known, it's an an RF11). > > I have been searching for these panels for quite a while now, and have a page > for them: > > http://ana-3.lcs.mit.edu/~jnc/tech/DECIndicatorPanels.html > > _but_ ... I have never seen that panel. > > > I am quite sure that it is _NOT_ an RK11-C panel; although no image of such > has ever been found (I think because it was never produced - no DEC manual or > print set refers to it), the RK11-C prints show the wiring for the connector > to the indicator panel (which would presumably have been a standard DEC 19" x > 5-1/4" panel of the kind documented on the page above), and from that it's > possible to predict what it would look like, as shown here: > > http://ana-3.lcs.mit.edu/~jnc/tech/pdp11/RK11-C_inlay.txt > http://ana-3.lcs.mit.edu/~jnc/tech/pdp11/RK11-C_inlay.pdf > > > Can anyone shed any light (no pun intended :-) on what this is? > > The RF11 engineering drawings list (on page 187/188) all the inserts > available (as of that date) for the standard 19" x 5-1/4" indicator panel, > and I don't have pictures of all of them, so it's possible this is one of > them. (It's clear from the brochure that this wasn't necessarily a working > system, since it appears in a number of different configurations. So maybe > they just grabbed up a random indicator panel and plugged it in to make the > system look cool.) > > One possibility is that it's a prototype that was never produced - or perhaps > it was the indicator panel for an earlier RK11 controller (although I can't > find any mention of an RK11-B or RK11-A, and the list above doesn't contain > an RK11 entry). > > Anyone have any ideas? > > Noel
FWIW the layout pattern also doesn't look anything close to a drum indicator, well at least not the Foxboro-trim version shown in their doc that used the RC11 controller (M7219 through M7225). I have been looking but not yet found a picture of the DEC-trimmed RC11 etc. drum indicator panel to establish how close it is to the Fox one. The 1972 Peripherals Handbook only shows the drum part of the RC11/RS64 but no indicator panel photo. If anyone could point me to a photo of the RC11/RS64 DECdisk panel - to be honest I don't know if it even had one? - I would be grateful. I would know then if the Fox indicator panel was an own-design or a rebadged DEC item. I have the RC11 boards and the Foxboro drum interface print set but sadly no indicator panel nor drum. Foxboro used a DDC 'drum'/fixed-head disk apparently, the Fox doc shows a different drive unit to the RS64) and also a different indicator panel to the DDC offering. Steve.
