QBus framebuffers, was Re: Terak 8510 system on eBay

[Ethan Dicks]

On Fri, Aug 15, 2008 at 08:20:47AM +0100, Gordon JC Pearce wrote:
> Well just to cover this reply and the couple of off-list emails I've 
> had, I'm looking for *some sort* of framebuffer that I can fit to my 
> PDP-11/73.  Ideally it should be able to do a couple of greyscales (But 
> 1-bit would be fine) or colour, and if it can spit out RS-170ish video 
> that would be lovely.

I worked with one c. 1988 that fits the bill, but I can't even remember
the vendor now.  Pertek, maybe?  It was RGB, but did SOG, and we used it
as a 512x512 16-shades-of-grey on a mono security monitor.  The only thing
odd about it was the tiny coax connectors for video out (my boss just
soldered a BNC pigtail to the bottom of the board at the "Green" connector).

> I've got loads of quad-height slots free.

This was dual-height, and, IIRC, easy to talk to from MACRO-11 programs
(i.e. - no driver).
 
> Now, I've been offered a VCB02 set, which I believe is from a MicroVAX. 
>  Will these work in a PDP11?  Would I need to make any mods?  Bear in 
> mind that I'm most likely going to write the software from scratch.

That I don't know, but I would _suspect_ it should work, especially if
you are willing to roll your own code.  I don't think it did needed
anything from the Qbus that a PDP-11 couldn't do.  You could always check
an existing VAX driver for code examples - dunno if any of the BSDs
support it, but VMS and Ultrix should have both supported it.

-ethan

-- 
Ethan Dicks, A-333-S     Current South Pole Weather at 15-Aug-2008 at 07:40 Z
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Ethan.Dicks at usap.gov            http://penguincentral.com/penguincentral.html