13 Nov
2021
13 Nov
'21
2:19 a.m.
No, sorry to say. I have absolutely nothing from that time, not even any documents. I
never saw DECnet for either, actually; the networking technology in TMS-11 was entirely
different and unrelated.
It would be neat if a copy of the VT71 firmware could be found, then SIMH could be taught
to emulate the hardware.
A while ago I contacted a museum in the Boston area which at one time had a TMS-11 system,
but they got rid of it a decade ago and no longer have any records of its fate.
paul
On Nov 12, 2021, at 5:31 PM, Lee Gleason
<lee.gleason at comcast.net> wrote:
My first computer job was at a TMS-11 site. VT71's and72's were great editing
terminals, especially when compared to using EDI on VT52's and 100's. The
competition for their use between the programmers and the typesetters was fierce.
Say, since you worked on IAS/RSX11D, did you happen to save a copy of DECNet for either
of them or RMS11-K for IAS? I'm an RSX11D/IAS hobbyist, and products for them are hard
to come by....
--
Lee K. Gleason N5ZMR
Control-G Consultants
lee.gleason at comcast.net
On 11/12/2021 2:01 PM, Paul Koning wrote:
On Nov 11, 2021, at 6:49 PM, Johnny Billquist
<bqt at softjar.se> wrote:
RSX-11M-PLUS can have up to 256 terminals. However, I sortof doubt much useful stuff
would happen if you had that many users running interactively.
I think it was more used for systems where you had some clever programs running that
controlled lots of terminals.
RSTS has an API for that, allowing one program to
control lots of terminals without having to open lots of individual files for each
terminal. It makes it possible to support 127 terminals, even though the number of
logged-in users is limited to 63.
A variation on this theme (with a specialized bulk data DMA service) was used by the
inhouse APT tool to drive manufacturing test setups.
But PDP-11 systems were/are pretty capable,
considering some of the limitations... And they are still being used in some places, which
I find pretty nice. And of course, I continue whack at them when I get a chance. The
combination of TCP/IP, web servers, and stuff like Datatrieve makes it look almost like
some modern stack of tools. I'm having blast nearly every day. I just wish I could
locate the sources of the layered products...
Another example of a large
configuration is Typeset-11 (TMS-11). I don't remember exactly what the terminal
limit is on that, but I'm fairly sure it was at least 64. TMS-11 systems also do a
form of clustering, with up to 4 nodes (at least -- that's the max I remember) with
dynamic routing dating back to before DECnet did that. Part of the reason such a large
setup worked is that the terminals are all block-editing terminals, with the main editing
work done on VT-71 terminals where you download a file, edit it entirely in the terminal
(thanks to an 11/23 inside) and send back the result.
Typeset-11 had some rather odd I/O: 6-bit UARTs carrying data streams from wire service
feeds like Associated Press, custom interfaces to typesetting machines (this is before
PostScript), multipoint BiSync over DL-11/E interfaces to connect to Harris 2200 display
ad editing terminals, ...
paul