compact pdp11 and front panel

[Patrick Finnegan]

On Monday 02 March 2009, David Griffith wrote:
> Does anyone know anything about shoehorning a front panel with lots
> of lights and switches onto a compact pdp11 (say, a /73 or /83)?

I think that the easiest way to do this (and what I would probably do) 
would be to put some sort of microcontroller in line with the console 
port, and make it use ODT to do front-panel functions.  That won't get 
you a switches and lights register, but it'll get you most of the 
functionality that is available on a Unibus-11's FP.

With a little bit of hardware hackery (probably not even that much, if 
you don't mind modifying a console SLU board to do it), you could 
probably even put a switch and lights register on the QBUS, along with 
intercepting the console port for ODT.

Pat
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