>The "halt" switch is set. This causes the system to pop into ODT rather
>than to run programs. On the 11/23 there are _two_ halt switches, one on
>the front of the box and one on the BDV11 boot/terminator board. I'm
>guessing that you switched on, or the other, or both somehow.
I would not suspect this since the system actually ran the ROM code
far enough to prompt 'Start?'... If it were in the halt position,
you wouldn't even get this much...
Megan Gentry
Former RT-11 Developer
+--------------------------------+-------------------------------------+
| Megan Gentry, EMT/B, PP-ASEL | Internet (work): gentry!zk3.dec.com |
| Unix Support Engineering Group | (home): mbg!world.std.com |
| Compaq Computer Corporation | addresses need '@' in place of '!' |
| 110 Spitbrook Rd. ZK03-2/T43 | URL: http://world.std.com/~mbg/ |
| Nashua, NH 03062 | "pdp-11 programmer - some assembler |
| (603) 884 1055 | required." - mbg |
--------------------------------+-------------------------------------+
>I just picked up a PDP 11/23 in excellent condition from an accountant
>that was going to dispose of it. It has two RL02 drives and 10 disk
>packs. My background in DEC stuff is only VMS, so I checked around and
>found some info on booting the machine, which I did successfully.. once.
>I was able to get a directory listing and type a few files. The system
>has RT-11 v4.00 with a runtime package in Dibol for general ledger, etc.
>I halted the machine and tried to restart it again, only this time it
>complains.
Congrats on the acquisition...
>The display I'm getting is..
>
>TESTING MEMORY
>0124.KW
>START? Y
>000010
>@
Sounds like either the boot board (if the CPU is an 11/23, it is
probably a BDV11, if an 11/23+, it has the BDV-style boot roms), or
the device interface.
Since it is supposed to have RLs, try typing 'DL0' at the 'Start?'
prompt. If this doesn't work, then I would suspect the RLV
interface...
Megan Gentry
Former RT-11 Developer
+--------------------------------+-------------------------------------+
| Megan Gentry, EMT/B, PP-ASEL | Internet (work): gentry!zk3.dec.com |
| Unix Support Engineering Group | (home): mbg!world.std.com |
| Compaq Computer Corporation | addresses need '@' in place of '!' |
| 110 Spitbrook Rd. ZK03-2/T43 | URL: http://world.std.com/~mbg/ |
| Nashua, NH 03062 | "pdp-11 programmer - some assembler |
| (603) 884 1055 | required." - mbg |
+--------------------------------+-------------------------------------+
Greetings,
I just picked up a PDP 11/23 in excellent condition from an accountant that
was going to dispose of it. It has two RL02 drives and 10 disk packs. My
background in DEC stuff is only VMS, so I checked around and found some info
on booting the machine, which I did successfully.. once. I was able to get a
directory listing and type a few files. The system has RT-11 v4.00 with a
runtime package in Dibol for general ledger, etc. I halted the machine and
tried to restart it again, only this time it complains.
The display I'm getting is..
TESTING MEMORY
0124.KW
START? Y
000010
@
I also tried 173000G at the @ prompt, and still get 000010. Is there
something I'm doing wrong here? I've also been searching for a FAQ of some
type on RT-11 and the 11/23. Found some stuff, but would be very interested
if someone has a jewel URL they'd be willing to share.
Like I said, the machine is in beautiful shape, been well cared for, one
owner. I had to drive 5 hours one way to get it (Houston to Shreveport, LA),
but was worth every mile.
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Best regards,
Mark Honeycutt
Baytown, TX
Today when I got up I knew it was going to be 'play with big
computers' day...
I got 24 of the 36 ports up and running on my 11/44 machine... it
only took four or five hours of messing around with things. I made
good use of the RSTS "Broadcast" untility, and by repeatedly sending
long messages to all ports, I was able to work out the loose/upside
down cables, DCE/DTE confusions, etc. Thank Heaven for the little
RS-232 breakout box and status indicator.
I had the console on my PC, a C.Itoh C101 on another port running
the DISPLY system status monitor, and an LA120 on yet another port.
Even the Kennedy 9100 woke up happy and functioned well.
I just shut the system down (after listening to the wonderful roar
for about eight hours) and now it's time to run SHUTUP on myself.
Nothing like having the OS Docs, either. I certainly learned
another big chunk of RSTS/E tonite. More than half the battle was
understanding how to manage and configure the system. It took a great
deal of study and cross-referencing to find the little secrets and
gotchas.
I am in the market for a Unibus Ethernet card: will beg/trade/buy.
Anyone have such a beast? Now it's time for the 11/44 to talk to the
uVax II.
Next task is getting one of the old DC03 Modems hooked up and
running... then to load a comm program and access this List from a
completely vintage PDP system. At 300 Baud. [Woo,Hoo]
Cheers
John
It might be well to consider that the place that had these HP units and
still has the monitors, is a retailer of surplus electronics. What's more,
he's located in the Denver metro area.
Almost all this stuff came from Martin Marietta from the period when they
were disposing of lots of hardware prior to being bought up by Lockheed.
The fact that they were prone to BUY this kind of stuff is one of many
examples available of the type of behavior which put them in the position to
be taken over by Lockheed. This HP stuff never worked properly during the
time I was there. It was mostly software trouble, but it never did work
well enough that I was able to use it without having to use my PC to do the
"real" work. HP got into CAE in '88 when they bought Apollo, and announced
it was getting out in '91, leaving everyone who'd bought their
hardware/software in the lurch. Meanwhile, Martin promoted and/or paid
bonuses to the fools who had bought in to the previously unheard-of and
inexperienced CAE/CAD vendor HP turned out to be.
Dick
-----Original Message-----
From: Jeffrey l Kaneko <jeff.kaneko(a)juno.com>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Date: Monday, December 13, 1999 8:25 AM
Subject: Re: Hewlett Packard A2094 Monitor (Standard RGB ?)
>
>
>On Sun, 12 Dec 1999 21:15:10 -0500 "Phil Clayton"
><musicman38(a)mindspring.com> writes:
>>
>> >One fellow who bought a half dozen of these workstations put them
>> >in his pickup, opened the boxes up, took out the memory (apparently
>and odd
>> >flavor), then drove over to the dumpster and tossed the
>workstations/servers
>> >in the dumpster and left.
>>
>>
>> I ended up with 5 of these HP Apollo 400's.. In each of them I found a
>230
>> MB SCSI Hard Drive, a 68040 Processor, and an 8 or 16 MB 72pin Simm in
>each.
>> After I remove the 3 components I will discard the remaining cases..
>
>I hate living in this part of the world. You almost never see
>opportunities
>like this here on the plains. . . .
>
>> But first I am going to hook up the 19 inch HP monitor to one of
>Apollo's
>> just to see what happens, enjoy the event and them toss that nice Very
>> Expensive (Original Cost) monitor out with the rest of the stuff..
>>
>> Phil..
>
>Actually, depending on the model, these things can run NetBSD or OpenBSD.
>If they're set up for DomainOS, OTOH, they're probably more trouble than
>they're worth . . . .
>
>
>Jeff
>
>___________________________________________________________________
>Why pay more to get Web access?
>Try Juno for FREE -- then it's just $9.95/month if you act NOW!
>Get your free software today: http://dl.www.juno.com/dynoget/tagj.
Well, I went and picked up the NCR Tower 400 this weekend.
The 400 is about the size of a LARGE tower PC. I haven't measured but, it's
about 28" inches tall, 24 inches deep, and 7 inches wide. I'd guess it
weighs about 75 pounds.
As with all new aquisitions, the first thing I did was open it up, remove
all the cards, blow out the dust, check for missing or damaged parts, and
then reinstall everything. The 400 is a 20MHZ 68020 machine built on a
4-slot multibus backplane. This particular system has 20MB of main memory,
60MB tape drive, 120MB hard drive, 10 serial ports, 2 SCSI interfaces, and
2 serail printer ports (each port will support 4 printers). Based on the
date codes on the chips, this machine was probably built in late 1985.
I reassembled the system and spent HOURS trying to get it to talk to a
terminal. The system has a funky 15 pin connectior for the console and no
documentation. I had to trace the connections back to the CPU and was able
to determine which were inputs and which were outputs based on whether they
went to a 1488 or 1489. After much tinkering, I was finally able to get the
system to send data to the terminal during boot.
NOTE: It uses a 9600 baud, 7-bit, and no parity.
Spent another 3 or 4 hours and was finally able to get the terminal to talk
to the system. Whoopee!!! Finally got data going both ways.
Unfortunately, the system still won't boot the OS. The sequence goes
something like this:
? ? MMU MEM HIO1 HIO2 DK5
The system hangs at the DK5 message. Since I'm not seeing any disk
activity, I'm sorta assuming the "DK5" refers to a disk activity. If anyone
can confirm this, I'd appreciate it? It isn't a big deal because I'll be
getting the 450 in a few weeks and if the 400 doesn't work, I'll have a few
spares for the 450.
I got a look at the 450 while I was there and it looks more interesting.
Physically, it about twice as "thick" as the 400 and probably weighs twice
as much. Didn't look inside but would assume it has a 6 or 8 slot multibus
backplane. I believe it will support 16 terminals.
The good news is that the 450 is still in daily use so, I know it'll work
when I get it home. The system will be available in a couple of months and
I'll send an update once I get it.
Neither machine is really all THAT interesting but, I don't have any other
multibus systems and kinda wanted one.
Later,
Steve Robertson - <steverob(a)hotoffice.com>
On Sun, 12 Dec 1999 21:15:10 -0500 "Phil Clayton"
<musicman38(a)mindspring.com> writes:
>
> >One fellow who bought a half dozen of these workstations put them
> >in his pickup, opened the boxes up, took out the memory (apparently
and odd
> >flavor), then drove over to the dumpster and tossed the
workstations/servers
> >in the dumpster and left.
>
>
> I ended up with 5 of these HP Apollo 400's.. In each of them I found a
230
> MB SCSI Hard Drive, a 68040 Processor, and an 8 or 16 MB 72pin Simm in
each.
> After I remove the 3 components I will discard the remaining cases..
I hate living in this part of the world. You almost never see
opportunities
like this here on the plains. . . .
> But first I am going to hook up the 19 inch HP monitor to one of
Apollo's
> just to see what happens, enjoy the event and them toss that nice Very
> Expensive (Original Cost) monitor out with the rest of the stuff..
>
> Phil..
Actually, depending on the model, these things can run NetBSD or OpenBSD.
If they're set up for DomainOS, OTOH, they're probably more trouble than
they're worth . . . .
Jeff
___________________________________________________________________
Why pay more to get Web access?
Try Juno for FREE -- then it's just $9.95/month if you act NOW!
Get your free software today: http://dl.www.juno.com/dynoget/tagj.
I have my original Zenith (ZDS) Z-150 computer, which was their
answer to the IBM 8088/86 PC. This was also offered as a kit
>from Heathkit (as the H-150?) in the mid-1980s.
My Z-150 currently won't start up, with lights stopping in the BIOS PROM
startup sequence. Does anyone have the equivalent Heathkit assembly
manual(s) and drawings for this system? Or are there similar systems
around that board swapping might be possible?
What is somewhat unique about the Z-150 is that there is no motherboard
as such (unlike all the PCs and Wintel systems), just an ISA bus and
the CPU on its own board. A idea similar to mini- and bigger computers,
but alas, except for the a few exceptions such as S-100 systems and the
Apple-II, an approach that never caught on in the so-called "PC"
series that have dominated since the mid-1980s....
Just curious. Thanks. Regards, Kevin Anderson
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Kevin L. Anderson Ph.D., Geography Department, Augustana College
Rock Island, Illinois 61201-2296, USA phone: (309) 794-7325
e-mail: kla(a)helios.augustana.edu -or- gganderson(a)augustana.edu
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Opinions expressed here are my own and do not represent
the administration of Augustana College.
I was just looking up some info in the PDP-11 FAQ, and glancing through the
list of OS's, I noticed Tripos. Does anyone have any information on what
models it ran on? Based on the Tripos webpage, such as it is, it looks
like the OS is freely distributable for private and academic purposes.
http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/users/mr/Tripos.html
Zane
| Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Adminstrator |
| healyzh(a)aracnet.com (primary) | Linux Enthusiast |
| healyzh(a)holonet.net (alternate) | Classic Computer Collector |
+----------------------------------+----------------------------+
| Empire of the Petal Throne and Traveller Role Playing, |
| and Zane's Computer Museum. |
| http://www.aracnet.com/~healyzh/ |
I've read the micronotes but I'm still confused. I've got a DHV11 in a
BA213 which is 12 Q/CD slots. Since the slots aren't Q/Q it doesn't need
the jumpers installed for the grants but will having them installed screw
anything up?
--Chuck
