32K RAM board up and running in my 8m

[AteEm]

Earlier this year I purchased the 32K RAM board kit that Vince was offering (http://www.vintage-computer.com/vcf...r-the-PDP-8-e-8-f-8-m-and-8-a-ends-March-31st).
I finally got around to assembling it:D
Anyway, after some incredible stupidity and luck (see below) it's up and running alongside my 8K of real core.
I ran the memory checkerboard test for nearly an hour last night with zero errors.

In the incredible stupidity department: I thought it would be a good idea to pull out my three board 8K memory set and first test the 32K ram board solo. That went well, so I disabled bank 0 and 1 so the new board could co-exist with my 8K core stack. I then proceeded to plug the three boards back in and turned the machine on. It was immediately apparent there were SERIOUS problems; random lights on and no response from any of the controls! Shut everything down and found that I had actually installed the board containing the core UPSIDE DOWN! There are four edge connectors on both sides of the card and I STUPIDLY wasn't paying the slightest attention when plugging it in...what a MORON.

In the incredible luck department: figuring I had pretty much nothing to lose at that point, I plugged the board in correctly and turned the machine back on. Much to my shock and amazement, not only was there no damage, Chekmo II was still uncorrupted, started right up, and proceeded to beat me yet again

Anyway, now that I've got a full box o' memory, it's time to get TSS8 running!

 

[bobaboba]

You aren't the first person to do that and there'll be others, the core board lends itself to inserting it upside down. Luckily it survives the experience which is more than happens if you insert boards backwards which generally gives them a hard time.

I'll be interested to hear how you get on with TSS8 - I've never run that, something I'd like to do once I repair mine ;( . What boards do you have in your 8m?

 

[m_thompson]

You aren't the first person to do that and there'll be others, the core board lends itself to inserting it upside down. Luckily it survives the experience which is more than happens if you insert boards backwards which generally gives them a hard time.

My 8/e came with one of the core stacks installed up side down.

 

[AteEm]

You aren't the first person to do that and there'll be others, the core board lends itself to inserting it upside down. Luckily it survives the experience which is more than happens if you insert boards backwards which generally gives them a hard time.

I'll be interested to hear how you get on with TSS8 - I've never run that, something I'd like to do once I repair mine ;( . What boards do you have in your 8m?

In addition to the basic processor/termination boards, I just have the Extended Memory/Timeshare and Power-Line Real Time Clock boards. Oh, and the single line terminal board, M8650, I think.

So, the disk is going to be the real challenge; I have an RL01 on my 8a, and I'm planning on using it with my 8m (the RL8A controller will work in the 8m on an extender card, or, I think, I can relocate the fans to the outside of the cabinet and get the RL8A to fit in the box; we'll see.)

The bigger issue is modifying the TSS8 disk handlers... the RL01 uses a completely different proramming/structure than the DF32/RF08 disks than TSS8 was written for. It may not pan out. If not, I'll likely have to come up with some kind of emulator which really isn't what I want to do; I was trying to stay completely 'vintage.' But, I've already caved by using the 32K RAM board. And, honestly, the RL01 isn't 'vintage' correct for the 8m anyway.
Oh, well.

 

[tradde]

You aren't the first person to do that and there'll be others, the core board lends itself to inserting it upside down. Luckily it survives the experience which is more than happens if you insert boards backwards which generally gives them a hard time.

I'll be interested to hear how you get on with TSS8 - I've never run that, something I'd like to do once I repair mine ;( . What boards do you have in your 8m?

I did the core board upside down a long time ago too. Don't feel bad. I will be interested to hear how you
run TSS/8 with no DF32 or RF08. That's all TSS/8 worked with unless you have a later version that
supports RK05, but even then the swap space was DF32 or RF08. I always wanted to run it too.
I was even going to try to write a driver to support RK05 by reading/writing to a buffer and
then choosing which words were read/written.