The PDP-11/40 in the lab also had a TU56. When I wanted to copy between RK05 packs I ran RT-11 from DECtape. The TU56 was/is block addressable and behaves like a disk. Like the TU58, which was in all other respects pretty much a disaster. The total amount of time spent waiting by 750 and 730 system managers during a VMS upgrade must be staggering. Definitely a low point for the hardware designers. Was I glad that the 750 eventually learned to boot directly off an RA device!
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-----Original Message-----
From: <Paul_Koning at Dell.com>
Sender: owner-hecnet at Update.UU.SE
Date: Tue, 23 Aug 2011 13:10:27
To: <hecnet at Update.UU.SE>
Reply-To: hecnet at Update.UU.SESubject: RE: [HECnet] Can we hook this up to a VAX or something?
Oh no. A TU58 is a joke device that connects via a UART; the driver for it is a pile of software that speaks a packet protocol over that UART to send/receive the data.
The TU56 is a classic PDP-11 style DMA device, hooked to a Unibus interface. It looks somewhat like an old style disk interface (like the RK05 or RP04) except that you first had to seek to the required block number (by doing read block number operations until the right number shows up). Also, a TU56 is reliable, unlike a TU58.
Oh no. A TU58 is a joke device that connects via a UART; the driver for it is a pile of software that speaks a packet protocol over that UART to send/receive the data.
The TU56 is a classic PDP-11 style DMA device, hooked to a Unibus interface. It looks somewhat like an old style disk interface (like the RK05 or RP04) except that you first had to seek to the required block number (by doing read block number operations until the right number shows up). Also, a TU56 is reliable, unlike a TU58.
Interesting, that a TU56 was supported by VMS. How did that become possible? Is it because the driver for the TU58 also happened to work for the TU56, possibly assisted by some SYSGEN magic to configure UB vector and addresses?
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Onderwerp: RE: [HECnet] Can we hook this up to a VAX or something?
Verzonden: 23 augustus 2011 19:48
I can't remember whether the RK05 was supported by VMS?
No, not AFAIK but the RL02 (either on an RL11 or the RB730) was.
But did it work? There were some strange old devices that worked on VMS even though not "supported" -- the TU56 (real DECtape) comes to mind.
paul
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The TU56 driver was always unsupported, but RX02s and RL02s were
officially supported and worked just fine.
Bob
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-hecnet at Update.UU.SE [mailto:owner-hecnet at Update.UU.SE] On Behalf
Of Paul_Koning at Dell.com
Sent: Tuesday, August 23, 2011 10:49 AM
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Subject: RE: [HECnet] Can we hook this up to a VAX or something?
I can't remember whether the RK05 was supported by VMS?
No, not AFAIK but the RL02 (either on an RL11 or the RB730) was.
But did it work? There were some strange old devices that worked on VMS
even though not "supported" -- the TU56 (real DECtape) comes to mind.
paul
I can't remember whether the RK05 was supported by VMS?
No, not AFAIK but the RL02 (either on an RL11 or the RB730) was.
But did it work? There were some strange old devices that worked on VMS even though not "supported" -- the TU56 (real DECtape) comes to mind.
paul
You'd need. MC SYSGEN CONNECT CONSOLE to make that happen.
True, but having done that you could access it from VMS just fine. Ditto
for the TU58 drives that were used as console media on the 730 and 750.
Directly connected UNIBUS RX02 drives showed up under VMS as the DYA0/1
devices as you'd expect.
I can't remember whether the RK05 was supported by VMS?
No, not AFAIK but the RL02 (either on an RL11 or the RB730) was.
Bob
The console RX02 on the 780 wasn't "visible" to VMS. You'd need. MC SYSGEN CONNECT CONSOLE to make that happen. I used a PDP-11/40 with RX02's but never actually seen such an interface on a VAX unibus. Very useful to transfer data between systems; this was before ethernet was common, let alone affordable. An alternative was the RL02. Which became the load device for the PDP-11/23 console in the 8600/8650.
I can't remember whether the RK05 was supported by VMS?
Hans
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Onderwerp: RE: [HECnet] Can we hook this up to a VAX or something?
Verzonden: 23 augustus 2011 19:27
Correct, an RX02 floppy with a formatted capacity of 512 kB IIRC.
Absolutely, on the 11/03 CFE. And any of the UNIBUS VAXen (730, 750, 780,
etc) would directly support an RX01/02 on an RX211 interface. Such
combinations were not unusual and were supported by VMS. I've got a 11/730
with an RX02 drive in the garage. Likewise any of the BI bus VAXen with a
UBA could at least in theory do the same, though by that time 8" floppies
were uncommon.
Bob
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Correct, an RX02 floppy with a formatted capacity of 512 kB IIRC.
Absolutely, on the 11/03 CFE. And any of the UNIBUS VAXen (730, 750, 780,
etc) would directly support an RX01/02 on an RX211 interface. Such
combinations were not unusual and were supported by VMS. I've got a 11/730
with an RX02 drive in the garage. Likewise any of the BI bus VAXen with a
UBA could at least in theory do the same, though by that time 8" floppies
were uncommon.
Bob
Correct, an RX02 floppy with a formatted capacity of 512 kB IIRC.
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Onderwerp: RE: [HECnet] Can we hook this up to a VAX or something?
Verzonden: 23 augustus 2011 19:11
Hm... didn't the 780 use an 8 inch floppy for console boot device?
paul
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-hecnet at Update.UU.SE [mailto:owner-hecnet at Update.UU.SE] On Behalf Of Sampsa Laine
Sent: Tuesday, August 23, 2011 1:09 PM
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Subject: Re: [HECnet] Can we hook this up to a VAX or something?
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vintage-IBM-6360-8-Disk-Drive-Displaywriter-/1107…
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