I got the 8L pretty cheap on eBay a few years back after it had been stripped for parts so it’s been a long restoration project this is why I’m so attached to it. Now that I’ve learnt that for the L I won’t be running anything other than paper tape I’m ok with that as I do like the limitations. I think I’ll stop the search to add mass storage to the 8 and focus 100% on the data general systems which I prefer over Dec as then I don’t have to deal with many many flip chip cards
> On 8 Jan 2023, at 19:45, Ethan Dicks via cctalk <cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote: > > On Sun, Jan 8, 2023 at 6:40 AM jos via cctalk <cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote: >>> On 08.01.23 01:51, jake utley via cctalk wrote: >>> Hello everyone I’m a young collector (18) of 60s and 70s minicomputers and >>> micros. I have been restoring a PDP-8L and would love to find ether a >>> Diablo series 30 or Dec RK03 removable cartridge drive to go with this >>> system. >> >> Is it even possible to add a diskdrive to a PDP8/L ? My 1970 "Small computer >> handbook" only mentions TU55/TC01 and DF32 as mass-storage options for the >> 8/L. Both are essentially unobtainable. > > Indeed. I have had a PDP-8/L since I was in High School (eons ago). > I have never come up with mass storage for mine and it's long been a > goal to be able to do more than paper tape programs on it. Dry so > far. > > Posibus storage devices were, IME, less common than Negibus devices > (which would then require a DW08 and by the time you bought all of > that, why didn't you get a PDP-8-i in the first place? (especially > since you were memory-limited on the -8/L) > >> Maybe sell the 8/L and get yourself an 8/E or /F ? Much more flexible. > > I do get wanting to max out an 8/L. It was my first and I'd love to > get it doing more things, and it's really cool that you can easily see > what's happening at the gate level (possible but less convenient with > an Omnibus machine), but there's only so much you can do with _any_ 4K > PDP-8, and memory expansion boxes for the 8/L may be rarer than > Posibus storage devices. It's a lot easier to bring an Omnibus > machine up to 32K and there are lots of vintage storage options. > > Recreating these things with modern components is always a > possibility, of course, but I've only ever seen a couple of one-off > devices ever come out (like a Posibus DF32D emulator implemented in > TTL that happens to need a now-hard-to-find 128Kx16 NVRAM) > > Personally I'd love to see some Posibus devices get recreated but > after this long, I'm totally willing to see if I could get SerialDisk > working with an add-on serial port on an -8/L or unexpanded -8/i. > > My own (perpetual) goal is to run OS/8 on a pre-Omnibus machine. > Haven't pulled all the resources together for that yet. > > -ethan
