Subject: PDP-11/24 Available in Virginia

From: Christopher McNabb <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun Mar 16 23:12:20 2003

I've decided that the PDP-11/24 I have is not getting enough attention
since I've acquired the 11/83.  So, if anyone is interested, I've got
the following available for pick up near Blacksburg in Southwest
Virginia:

PDP-11/24
	EIS
	FPP
	1 Megabyte of RAM
	DZ11A
	RL11
	UDA50
	Unibus Map

RA80 Disk Drive
RL02 Drives (two of them)
RL02 Disk Packs (nine of them)

RSTS/E 9.2 (with Y2K patch) is installed on the RA-80

The system is in two racks, one contains the PDP-11/24 and one contains
the RL02s.  I will not break this system up, so whoever wants it has to
be willing to take the whole thing, including all the disk packs and the
spare grant cards I have for it.

You can see a picture at
http://cmcnabb.cc.vt.edu/~cmcnabb/projects/pdp11 .  The HP Terminal is
NOT included, since I kinda need it for the HP-9000/832

If there are no takers, then I will keep the system (no E-bay for this
one)

Scrappers/Board Collectors need not reply.

-- 
Christopher L McNabb
Operating Systems Analyst         Email: [email-masked]
Virginia Tech                     ICBM:  37.1356N 80.4272N
GMRS: WPSR255                     ARS:   N2UX  Grid Sq: EM97SD

---

From: "Zane H. Healy" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun Mar 16 23:12:31 2003

> RSTS/E 9.2 (with Y2K patch) is installed on the RA-80

Now this is interesting, what is the origin of the Y2K patch?  Is this
something you did yourself or what?

		Zane

---

From: Christopher McNabb <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun Mar 16 23:12:43 2003

> something you did yourself or what?

It's been awhile, but I believe I got it from Johnny Billquist's site.

---

From: Ethan Dicks <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun Mar 16 23:16:05 2003

--- Christopher McNabb <[email-masked]> wrote:
> ...PDP-11/24... available for pick up near Blacksburg in Southwest
> Virginia:
.
.
.
> http://cmcnabb.cc.vt.edu/~cmcnabb/projects/pdp11 .

Nice little system.  I already have two 11/24s (one with 2MB, one
with 3MB!) and it's a little far to go for a duplicate, but someone
ought to find it to be worthwhile drive.

After spending about $300 (incl S&H) on the CPU, another couple hundred
on a KT24 and some extra memory, and, ISTR, $75 on an RL11) when I was
in college (c. 1987), I had mine beefed up enough to load 2.9BSD.  I
wouldn't feel like I spent too much, except that it didn't see much
use after that, unfortunately, so on a per-hour basis, it was kinda
expensive.  My disks were 3 x RL02, so I didn't really have enough
disk space to have fun with it.

The other one was free from work a few years later.  It had been a RSTS
machine for nearly all of its life, first as an accounting box, then
later a product dev box when we ported the COMBOARD software to 8.something
then 9.3.

Yours would be great for either RSTS or RT-11.  1MB is a little tight
for 2BSD, but it should install, boot and be able to at least run
adventure in that much space.  I wouldn't recommend it for multi-user,
though.

-ethan

---

From: Kevin Handy <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun Mar 16 23:16:29 2003

>It's been awhile, but I believe I got it from Johnny Billquist's site.
These are probably the patches you are talking about

http://elvira.stacken.kth.se/

---

From: Christopher McNabb <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun Mar 16 23:16:41 2003

> http://elvira.stacken.kth.se/

Yup, those are the ones.

-- 
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Christopher L McNabb              Tel:   540 231 7554
Operating Systems Analyst         Email: [email-masked]
Virginia Tech                     ICBM:  37.205622N 80.414595W
GMRS: WPSR255                     ARS:   N2UX  Grid Sq: EM97SD

---

From: "John Allain" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun Mar 16 23:16:53 2003

> ...PDP-11/24... available for pick up near Blacksburg

Thanks for the offer!

I'm getting sortof interested, but will probably decline, esp. 
since the owner doesn't have his hand on the axe, and 
there's 500 miles involved.

Question: How portable are PDP11 OS'es and software?
  If I had a copy of RSX11M for the 11/23 (which I don't) could
  I port it to an 11/24 and a '/34?  Similarly could this RSTS be
  coaxed into an 11/34?

John A.

---

From: Kevin Monceaux <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun Mar 16 23:17:05 2003

If it wasn't such a long drive from central Texas I'd be interested.

Kevin

---

From: Ethan Dicks <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun Mar 16 23:17:52 2003

>   I port it to an 11/24 and a '/34?  Similarly could this RSTS be

For the machines you mentioned, the only issue is one of
device drivers.  If you want to port a SYSGENed RSX system
from a Qbus to a Unibus machine, I don't know if that would
fly.  If you have distribution media for RSX-11 and your
boot device (RL02, 9track, etc.) was compatible with the
target machine, no problem at all.  When I was working with
RSX-11/M and M+ (c. 1984-1993), we got our distros on either
RL02 pack or 16MT9.  Our 11/34 had a TS03 and we could put
a TU80 on the 11/24 if we had to, but since one wasn't on there
normally, that's why we went with RL02.

I never did RSTS installs personally (the owner did them), but
AFAIK, it's the same deal - porting a GENed system pack from
machine to machine might cause heartburn, depending on the
exact nature of the CPU (Split I&D, no Split I&D, Unibus, Qbus,
etc.), but the distro media should be able to install on anything
of the right generation with the right devices (i.e., don't
expect to install RSX-11/M 4.0 on a machine with a UDA-50 and
an RA-90... it's just an example; I don't have any foreknowledge
that it will work or can't work).

The critical test would be to get the SPD (Software Product Document?)
doc germain to the OS in question, down the version and patch level,
and compare the hardware list with what you want to install it on.  In
broad general terms, most versions of RSX or RSTS should like the
11/24 and 11/34 with varying amounts of memory (256K should be enough
for older versions; you might need more for the most recent versions).

Massbus disks (attached to an RH-11), RK05 (RK11/RKV11), RK06/RK07
(RK611), RL02 (RL11/RLV11/RLV12) or third-party controllers meant to
imitate them will be safe bets.  MSCP devices are likely to not be
recognized by older versions, but should be OK for something like
RSTS v9.  Again, check the SPD.

Once you have a running system, it's all about the SYSGEN.  Making
massive changes in the hardware (especially the boot disk controller)
may require a new SYSGEN, depending on how parsimonous you were the
first time around.  Limited support means more memory for applications,
but less flexibility when it comes to simple upgrades.

That's about all I can think of off the top of my head.  I haven't
actually used a PDP-11 for anything besides RT-11 or UNIX since about
1993, so I'm sure I've forgotten or misremembered something.  Also,
my experience with RSX-11 and RSTS is limited to a few versions
and a narrow range of hardware, so if I've made a mistake, I'm sure
someone will chime in to correct me.  :-)

-ethan

-ethan