I've assembled some notes from old manuals and other sources
on the formats used for on-disk file systems through the
Seventh Edition:
http://www.cita.utoronto.ca/~norman/old-unix/old-fs.html
Additional notes, comments on style, and whatnot are welcome.
(It may be sensible to send anything in the last two categories
directly to me, rather than to the whole list.)
On Friday, 18 August 2000 at 13:37:39 -0500, Spoof wrote:
> Hello!
Sorry, this languished in my inbox for a while because it didn't have
a recognizable subject. I don't recognize the machines, either, but
maybe somebody on the PUPS list does.
Greg
> If you are receiving this email, it is because I found your name during a
> websearch about 'classic computing'. At any rate, I have obtained two
> computers and I'd like to find out what they are. if you could help me
> identfy them i would greatly appreciate it. I was told by the source of
> these computers (who seemed very convinvced) that they were PDP-4
> computers. Every site I've seen that covers the pdp-4 says that there were
> only about 50 of them ever sold. However, Digital's own site does mention
> that some were sold for nuclear applications, and the computers I got were
> indeed from a nuclear lab.
>
> The thing is, there doesnt seem to be any mention of "Digital" or the PDP
> name anywhere.
>
> I'll describe the computers:
>
> One looks newer, it says "Tracor Northern TN-1610" on the faceplate. It
> has 18 ligts across the face and 18 switches directly below, in a bank
> labeled "Switch Register". There is another bank of 6 ligts labeled "RUN,
> CPU BUS, VIRT, PWR, BUS, USER"
> There is a small bank of 3 switches labeled ADDR/DATA, PHYS/VIRT, and INTR.
> There is a last bank of 6 switches labelled LOAD ADDR, EXAM, CONT,
> ENAB/HALT, START, LOAD DATA. There is also a power switch.
> On the bottom of the faceplate is a logo raised in plastic which I didn't
> understand until I looked inside the case and found a circuit board which
> said "California Data Procesors" (the logo said "CDP" in a funky '60s
> style), I've never heard of CDP- perhaps I heard "PDP4" when he actually
> said "CDP-4"?
>
> The second computer looks older. (1960's vs. 1970s).
> It's faceplate says "ND812" and "Nuclear Data Inc". There is a rotating
> switch labelled "Select Register" with the following positions: Status, S,
> R, K, J, Address, PC, External.
> There is a keyswitch with three postions: Power off, Power on, Control off.
> There is a bank of 12 lights, labelled "Selected Register", the lights are
> labelled 0-11 and an extra (13th) light labeled "Overflow".
>
> There is another bank of 12 lights, labeled "memory Register", again
> labeled 0-11. Next to it is a pair of lights labeled "Memory Field" 0 or 1.
> next to that is another pair of lights labeled "Run" and "Interrupt.
>
> Under the lights is a bank of 12 switches labeled "Switch Register".
>
> There are two switches simply labeled 0 and 1.
>
> There are two switches labeled Start and Stop
>
> Another two switches labeled Load AR and Load MR
>
> Another two labeled Next Word and Cont
>
> And another two labeled Step and Instr
>
>
> The older computer seems put together in a complicated sort of way (stacked
> PCB's wired together) whereas the newer one is more modular (I.E. large
> cards that are simply slide in and out of sockets.)
>
> Both seem to have core memory but it's arranged in such a way that I can't
> actually see it with out breaking some paper seals which I dont want to do
> unless necessary. The parts of the boards that I can see have intricate
> patterns that seem to indicate core memory (plus the guy told me that they
> both used core mem).
>
> I have a (kind of lousy) digital camera and i can take pictures of the
> faceplates if you think this might help in your identification.
>
> As I said, both were in use in a lab. The older one has a set of two tape
> drives (they look to be regular audio cassette size) and the newer one has
> one tape drive. However I was supplied with piles of punched tape programs
> (i guess there was a tape reader with these computers at some point?) i was
> given a lot of documentation but most of it has "NDI" written on it and it
> is about taking nuclear data measurements.
> Both are in large rackmount cases (which I don't have) and were mounted
> with other equipment.
>
>
> I'm interested to know what these computers are, how much they cost when
> new, and what their capabilities are. Supposedly they were replaced by a
> single $4000 MCI interface card in a PC.
>
> If you have no idea but you think you know someone who might, please do not
> hesitate to suggest that person to me.
>
> Thank you for taking the time to read this email.
>
> -Kev
>
>
> _____________________________________________
> Free email with personality! Over 200 domains!
> http://www.MyOwnEmail.com
>
--
Finger grog(a)lemis.com for PGP public key
See complete headers for address and phone numbers
an electrician came in to my place of employment last week and installed
some new lighting in the "engineering junkyard" which was previously a
very dark place. The new light prompted me to do some exploring, and in
doing so, I spotted a heath H11!
unfortunately, it looks like the case has been stripped, as only one
half-height board remains in the cardcage. The handle is labeled "Heath
Serial I/O." I threw it on a flatbed scanner and the pictures are here:
http://www.poofygoof.com/~agrier/lsi11f.jpghttp://www.poofygoof.com/~agrier/lsi11b.jpg
Is this one of heathkit's almost-like-DEC-but-not-quite boards?
--
Aaron J. Grier | "Not your ordinary poofy goof." | agrier(a)poofygoof.com
What I have:
11/83, QBUS, 2MB, DH11, running RT-11 5.04 plus TSX
- Kermit is installed on the machine
2x CDC 384MB SMD disks attached to Emulex Controller emulating MSCP
1 DigiData 800/1600 BPI 9-track drive attached to TM-11 emulating
controller
What I need:
Way to get 2.11BSD onto one of the CDC drives (preferably not
to one with RT-11).
How I can do that:
1. Kermit transfer of 2.11BSD images to RT-11
q1. Is there a way to then transfer from RT-11 to one
of the CDC disks?
q2. Is there a way to then transfer from RT-11 to tape
images on the DigiData?
2. A kind soul sends me a set of 9-track 2.11BSD tapes with
boot images.
3. Other?
Any takers?
Thanks!
greg
Gregory Travis
Cornerstone Information Systems ATS
greg(a)ciswired.com
812 330 4361 ext. 18
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>From "Steven M. Schultz" <sms(a)moe.2bsd.com> Mon Aug 14 11:30:40 2000
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Date: Sun, 13 Aug 2000 18:30:40 -0700 (PDT)
From: "Steven M. Schultz" <sms(a)moe.2bsd.com>
Message-Id: <200008140130.SAA18988(a)moe.2bsd.com>
To: pups(a)minnie.cs.adfa.oz.au
Subject: Re: [pups] Needed 2.11BSD 9-track boot tapes
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> From: "Gregory R. Travis" <greg(a)ciswired.com>
> What I have:
>
> 11/83, QBUS, 2MB, DH11, running RT-11 5.04 plus TSX
> - Kermit is installed on the machine
> 2x CDC 384MB SMD disks attached to Emulex Controller emulating MSCP
> 1 DigiData 800/1600 BPI 9-track drive attached to TM-11 emulating
> controller
It wouldn't happen to be an Emulex UC07 or UC08 would it? If so
there are a couple possibilities that open up.
> How I can do that:
> 1. Kermit transfer of 2.11BSD images to RT-11
Slow but sure - the sum total of data to move is close to 80mb
> q1. Is there a way to then transfer from RT-11 to one
> of the CDC disks?
I don't think RT-11 understands the 2.11BSD filesystem so I don't think
this approach can be made to work.
> q2. Is there a way to then transfer from RT-11 to tape
> images on the DigiData?
This can be made to work but it depends on having a program that can
transfer the the files "bytes as bytes" (no record format
interpretation, etc) _and_ handle multiple blocking factors on the
first tape.
If you have the PDP-11 volume of the archives you should see in the
PDP-11/Distributions/ucb/2.11BSD directory two files called 'maketape.c'
and 'maketape.data'. It's a small program and if a counterpart to
that could be created for RT-11 you'd be all set to go.
The layout of the first tape normally is:
mtboot+mtboot+boot (512 byte blocking factor)
<tapemark>
disklabel (1024 byte blocking factor)
<tapemark>
mkfs (1024 byte blocking factor)
<tapemark>
restor (1024 byte blocking factor)
<tapemark>
icheck (1024 byte blocking factor)
<tapemark>
root.dump (10240 byte blocking factor)
<tapemark>
file6.tar (10240 byte blocking factor)
<tapemark>
file7.tar (10240 byte blocking factor)
<tapemark>
<tapemark>
The 2nd tape contains file8.tar blocked at 10240 bytes.
The "boot" tape really only need to have the first few files, up to
and including 'root.dump'. Those are enough to boot the tape,
run the standalone utilties to label the disk, create the filesystem
and restor the root filesystem. The tar archives can be (with
suitable interpolation of the installation instructions) be placed
on individual tapes. This may be necessary because file7.tar may or
may not fit any longer on the first tape.
Why three blocking factors? Well, partly historical and partly
hardware reasons. The first "file" contains the 'bootblock' and that
needs to be 512 bytes since that's all the hardware will read. The
standalone i/o system uses 1024 byte blocks so the next few files
use 1k records. After the standalone utilities are done and the
system is loaded 'tar' can use its default 20 sector (10kb) record
size.
> 2. A kind soul sends me a set of 9-track 2.11BSD tapes with
> boot images.
My tape drive may or may not work - it's been ages since it was
last powered up and I fear the rubber parts may have disintegrated
(or the capacitors dried out, etc).
> 3. Other?
If you could find a TK70+TQK70 drive+controller that would be awesome.
They're pretty cheap (less than $100 I believe - I didn't pay much
for mine). Or even a TK50 drive (almost free) attached to a TQK70
would be fine. The TQK70 is a vastly better controller than the TQK50
because the former has a buffer cache that makes a huge difference
is how often the tape stops moving.
If the Emulex controller you have is SCSI based (UC07 or 08) then
someone could stage and make available a 2.11BSD Zip disk image
with all the stuff needed to boot and run the installation proceedure
(I've a Zip disk attached to my UC08 - works great).
Alternatively a 2.11 formatted CDROM could be created and a CDrom
drive (that knew about 512 byte blocks instead of 2048 byte blocks)
could be used.
Good Luck!
Steven Schultz
sms(a)moe.2bsd.com
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>From "Gregory R. Travis" <greg(a)ciswired.com> Mon Aug 14 13:25:30 2000
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Date: Sun, 13 Aug 2000 22:25:30 -0500 (EST)
From: "Gregory R. Travis" <greg(a)ciswired.com>
To: "Steven M. Schultz" <sms(a)moe.2bsd.com>
cc: pups(a)minnie.cs.adfa.oz.au
Subject: Re: [pups] Needed 2.11BSD 9-track boot tapes
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On Sun, 13 Aug 2000, Steven M. Schultz wrote:
> > From: "Gregory R. Travis" <greg(a)ciswired.com>
> > What I have:
> >
> > 11/83, QBUS, 2MB, DH11, running RT-11 5.04 plus TSX
> > - Kermit is installed on the machine
> > 2x CDC 384MB SMD disks attached to Emulex Controller emulating MSCP
> > 1 DigiData 800/1600 BPI 9-track drive attached to TM-11 emulating
> > controller
>
> It wouldn't happen to be an Emulex UC07 or UC08 would it? If so
> there are a couple possibilities that open up.
No, it's a DigiData board. Single QBUS board. Two 40-pin connectors.
>
> > How I can do that:
> > 1. Kermit transfer of 2.11BSD images to RT-11
>
> Slow but sure - the sum total of data to move is close to 80mb
I've already been waiting a few weeks :-)
> This can be made to work but it depends on having a program that can
> transfer the the files "bytes as bytes" (no record format
> interpretation, etc) _and_ handle multiple blocking factors on the
> first tape.
>
> If you have the PDP-11 volume of the archives you should see in the
> PDP-11/Distributions/ucb/2.11BSD directory two files called 'maketape.c'
> and 'maketape.data'. It's a small program and if a counterpart to
> that could be created for RT-11 you'd be all set to go.
Yeah, it's the RT-11 part that I don't know. It's a little hard to believe
that in 20+ years no-one has come up with an RT-11 program to build
UNIX distribution tapes! :-) (again)
> > 2. A kind soul sends me a set of 9-track 2.11BSD tapes with
> > boot images.
>
> My tape drive may or may not work - it's been ages since it was
> last powered up and I fear the rubber parts may have disintegrated
> (or the capacitors dried out, etc).
The Windex and electrical tape are on me. Did I mention that I would
happiliy provide 9-track boot service in the future? That is.
once I can get a system running!
> If the Emulex controller you have is SCSI based (UC07 or 08) then
> someone could stage and make available a 2.11BSD Zip disk image
> with all the stuff needed to boot and run the installation proceedure
> (I've a Zip disk attached to my UC08 - works great).
> Alternatively a 2.11 formatted CDROM could be created and a CDrom
> drive (that knew about 512 byte blocks instead of 2048 byte blocks)
> could be used.
Not SCSI, SMD/MSCP/Pertec formatted unfortunately
greg
Gregory Travis
Cornerstone Information Systems ATS
greg(a)ciswired.com
812 330 4361 ext. 18
