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pdp 11/04 assembly from parts

Well, it works under RT-11 V4.0 at least. I can now read and write TU60 tapes on both the 11/04 and the 8/e.

Somehow the CT: handler seems to have gotten broken between RT-11 V4.0 and V5. That will take some looking into.

Lou
 
As a final bit of insanity for this project, I have installed a UDA50 for connecting RA series SDI drives.

I would now call this project complete.

The 11/04 has a full 32kW of core (maximum supported for 11/04) and these perhiperals:

RX11 / RX01 8" dual floppy
RL11 / RL01 and RL02 drives
TA11 / TU60 Cassette
UDA50 / RA80 (shared with the 11/53, RA80 is dual ported)
DEUNA Ethernet
DL11 / Emulated TU58
DL11 / for the console terminal

It's mounted at the top of a five foot rack with the RX and RL drives. Final picture is here: http://www.vintage-computer.com/vcforum/album.php?albumid=77&attachmentid=5577

Lou
 
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The insane part is putting a UDA50 on an 11/04. I wasn't even sure it would work. The only weaker unibus processor is an 11/20.

Does anyone have any spare MSCP boot roms for an M9312 unibus bootstrap card?

Lou
 
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Lou - N2MIY said:
The insane part is putting a UDA50 on an 11/04....
Click to expand...

Makes me gigle.... a little like stuffing a Hemi in a VW Beetle.

Lou - N2MIY said:
Does anyone have any spare MSCP boot roms for an M9312 unibus bootstrap card?

Lou
Click to expand...
Believe it or not.... Look here - The file should be 767A9.BIN if I'm reading this right.

Here's another - Includes Listing. This guy was pretty impressive.
 
uhm.. Wow! That is one anachronistic set of racks you have there. I do like the PDP-8/e in the VAX cabinet :D

Can you access the RA80 concurrently from both PDPs?

Is that a kitchen tabletop on the left rack?

I'm butchering a rack just like it (I have to, no space, no takers). Would you like the parts missing from your rack? Free of course, but shipping is on you.
 
Pontus,

No, both machines can't work with the drive at the same time. I have the 11/53 connected to port A and 11/04 to port B. It may be an RT-11 thing, but once a machine gets control of the drive, the other is locked out, until I release the RA80 front panel button for the machine that has control. Then, the other machine can get control until I release its button and press the other one. So, I can't get both the A and B front panel lamps lit at the same time. Maybe someone else who has tried to connect two machines to one SDI drive can comment on how it's supposed to work.

I think the dual porting on SDI drives was intended for redundnacy. A customer could have two VAXes connected to a drive so that when one VAX failed, the other could pick up the duty. I'm not sure that the intention was to have two independant systems, each with their own jobs, sharing one drive (my setup).

Yes, that's a bit of kitchen countertop under the 11/53. It was left over from when I did my laundry room. A close eye will see that it matches the counter that shows up in some pictures of activities at my indoor "bench".

If you were on this side of the pond, I would gladly give your rack a good home. Cutting one up as a scrap is terrible. If you are considering doing that then you don't nearly have enough junk lying around your place (or else the rack would be full already). I could easily fill up two more of those racks if anyone in metro NYC has them to give away!

Lou
 
I have already used parts from the rack to complete the rack for my 11/44. So it's going to be cut up anyway I'm afraid. I simply can't fit it in with all my other stuff. I know I will regret this in a few years time :/
 
Pontus,

I just looked at your website and you certainly do have more than enough room for that rack. You do not have crap piled in front of crap yet. You can still walk in that room and not step on anything. It looks too neat and organized.

If you insist on keeping everything that tidy, I have a suggestion. Put shelves inside the rack and take down some of your shelving units, then roll the rack where the shelves were.

Lou
 
177570

177570

Hardware junkies might enjoy this....

I was recently reviving CAPS-11 if anyone has been reading alt.sys.pdp11 with this 11/04 that we built from parts. However, the secondary bootstrap for CAPS-11 examines the switch register but I didn't have a proper programmer's console for this machine, only the operator's console I wire wrapped. CAPS-11 can't load without a switch register!

So, I made my own switch register. See here: http://www.vintage-computer.com/vcforum/album.php?albumid=77&attachmentid=7062 with a closeup of the switches here: http://www.vintage-computer.com/vcforum/album.php?albumid=77&attachmentid=7063

I made a double height interface that plugs into a MUB slot and puts the contents of the newly added front panel switches at 177570 (the switch register address). The logic is most of an M104 address selector plus some bus drivers. The schematic is here: http://www.vintage-computer.com/vcforum/album.php?albumid=77&attachmentid=7061 Yes, I used real DEC380 for the bus receivers, but cheesed out and used 7438 for transmitters (instead of 8881).

I do now have CAPS-11 running and have sent the copies of the bootable tapes and sources to the appropriate archivists. That discussion is over on alt.sys.pdp11, but I thought folks here might enjoy the switch register sub-project.

Lou
 
Well done!
For what purpose does CAPS-11 examine the switch register?
(yes, I know, I'm curious - always.)
 
In CAPS-11, the secondary loader loads an absolute loader that looks at the switch register. It examines the LSB to see if it should load the next file (the monitor) from the address at the beginning of the file, or relocate to the address provided. I have no idea why this was necessary, as I have not yet seen the CAPS-11 manuals. However, with no switch register at all, the loader fails. There is a gentleman in Australia who has the CAPS-11 manuals and will scan them as he finds the time. I am in no hurry....

As for having a "skill set" well, I am sure anyone could do what I did. I made that switch register label in M$ Excel and printed it on a color inkjet printer. I used it as a template to mark the holes for the switches, then hand drilled starter holes and finished the holes on my drill press. The label front is covered with self adhesive laminating film, and the back is held to the panel with double stick tape. There is really no special skill required.

Lou
 
Lou - N2MIY said:
In CAPS-11, the secondary loader loads an absolute loader that looks at the switch register. It examines the LSB to see if it should load the next file (the monitor) from the address at the beginning of the file, or relocate to the address provided. I have no idea why this was necessary, as I have not yet seen the CAPS-11 manuals.
Click to expand...
Hmm, perhaps to be able to load "next file" into memory without overwriting current contents?
(I'm only speculating here)
 
I think how this happened was that a big chunk of code was reused. In the source files for CAPS-11 I found the cassette absolute loader by itself. When I disassembled the secondary loader (the first file on a bootable cassette, CTLOAD.SYS), it had two parts. The first part (which I could not find source code for, but no big deal, it's simple anyway) is executed after the bootstrap loader brings in the first 200 (octal) words of the secondary loader file. Those 200 words then load the rest of the secondary loader file, which is the absolute loader used to bring in the next file on the tape (CAPS11.S8K, the monitor). Rather than bother doing anything, the absolute loader was used as-is. Which is no big deal - unless you have no switch register (but then, if not, dec got to sell you one!)

To your point Tingo, I am sure that when the absolute loader is used for other things, the intent is as you thought.

tingo said:
Hmm, perhaps to be able to load "next file" into memory without overwriting current contents?
(I'm only speculating here)
Click to expand...


Lou
 
Beautiful Lou. You are the man. Someday I plan to get up there and see all your stuff.
 
Tim,

Well, thank you. I'm glad to have been able to do so much with the parts you gave me. When you come up for a visit I will point out all the bits that were previously in your basement. There is a VT340 waiting here for you. There really isn't a whole lot to see (compared to your old setup!), but what I do have does get played with (the dec stuff anyway.)

Lou
 
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