On Jan 2, 2009, at 12:51 AM, Gene Heskett wrote: > On Friday 02 January 2009, Kent A. Reed wrote: >> Stuart and Jon: >> >> You got me with your talk of PDP11 memory tests and "insanely complex >> systems with PDP-11s with hundreds of ISR addresses"...I was >> immediately >> transported back to the 1970s. I still have the tactile memory of >> keying >> in the bootstrap loader from the front panel, over and over and >> over, as >> we debugged our laboratory control programs, and keying in our >> patches >> because it was too time consuming to reassemble and link code in our >> "high speed" punched papertape environment. I have also worked with >> PDP8s, HP2100s, DG Novas, and even Interdata minis, but I loved the >> PDP11 the most. >> >> I know some lucky folks have original PDP11 front panels. I was too >> young to think to salvage mine when the relay racks were >> forklifted out >> of the lab. >> >> Those were the days!
Things were MUCH simpler then! > > Yeah, they were. I once had a CBS supplied PDP-11/23 that ran the > networks > (CBS) satellite system here at WDTV. It slowly fell apart, with final > uptimes measured in minutes and the DEC folks replaced everything > in it but > the frame rail with the seriel number without effecting the > problem. And > when it was found to have crashed, it often had to be rebooted > several times, > each instance of which was about a 10 minute process because it > actually > compiled the pascal srcs each time it booted, this to make it easy > to upgrade > the software, just download the new srcs from the sideband channel > on the > satellite signal and reboot. > > And it was costing us money because we were airing ads for dog food > only sold > in So Cal because a src switch was not performed & they refused to > pay us to > carry it. Finally Hugo, the computer guru at CBS traded me his > test mule > machine for mine, which pissed off the DEC folks, but I never had > to call > them again. But that put Hugo out of business fixing other stations > problems, so in about 3 months CBS was forced to convert their > whole system > to something that ran on an industrial IBM with an artic controller > board, > which actually did all the work. > > So no, I don't have fond memories of either the PDP-11/23, or of > the quality > of DEC's service protocols. Genuine new parts were simply not > used, if it > booted in their test mule, it was good and went back to the field > techs. > >> Regards, >> Kent We had an 11/03 that ran for approx 10 years. It was the data acq and calculations for a PE-303 Atomic Absorbtion. 11/03 CPU, 4K words core, 4K words dynamic memory, 16 bit parallel interface which talked to a 12 bit A/D running at about 4 KHz. It took the data, did a 2nd order curve fit to the data, scaled it by the dilution factors and printed out answers. The system device was a HP-8413(?) programmable calculator which also served as the printer. First entry of code was off the front panel; all 4K words of it. Then a loader/unloader spooled it to the tape on the HP. I still have an 11/23 with a 40 Mb disk assorted memory and interface boards and a full set of Macro-11 manuals. Anyone need an RL-02? ;-) Dave >> >> >> --------------------------------------------------------------------- >> ------- >> -- _______________________________________________ >> Emc-users mailing list >> [email protected] >> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users > > > > -- > Cheers, Gene > "There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty: > soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order." > -Ed Howdershelt (Author) > The F-15 Eagle: > If it's up, we'll shoot it down. If it's down, we'll blow it up. > -- A McDonnel-Douglas ad from a few years ago > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > -------- > _______________________________________________ > Emc-users mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
