On 2018-06-17 04:00, jnc(a)mercury.lcs.mit.edu (Noel Chiappa) wrote:
> > From: Johnny Billquist
>
> > It's a separate image (/netnix) that gets loaded at boot time, but it's
> > run in the context of the kernel.
>
> ISTR reading that it runs in Supervisor mode (no doubt so it could use the
> Supervisor mode virtual address space, and not have to go crazy with overlays
> in the Kernet space).
Yes. That rings a bell now that you mention it. Pretty sure you are correct.
Johnny
--
Johnny Billquist || "I'm on a bus
|| on a psychedelic trip
email: bqt(a)softjar.se || Reading murder books
pdp is alive! || tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol
> From: Johnny Billquist
> incidentally have 18 data bits, but that is mostly ignored by all
> systems. I believe the KS-10 made use of that, though. And maybe the
> PDP-15.
The 18-bit data thing is a total kludge; they recycled the two bus parity
lines as data lines.
The first device that I know of that used it is the RK11-E:
http://gunkies.org/wiki/RK11_disk_controller#RK11-E
which is the same cards as the RK11-D, with a jumper set for 18-bit operation,
and a different clock crystal. The other UNIBUS interface that could do this
was the RH11 MASSBUS controller. Both were originally done for the PDP-15;
they were used with the UC15 Unichannel.
The KS10:
http://gunkies.org/wiki/KS10
wound up using the 18-bit RH11 hack, but that was many years later.
Noel
On 2018-06-16 04:00, Tom Ivar Helbekkmo<tih(a)hamartun.priv.no> wrote:
> Warner Losh<imp(a)bsdimp.com> writes:
>
>> It looks like retrobsd hasn't been active in the last couple of years
>> though. A cool accomplishment, but with some caveats. All the network
>> is in userland, not the kernel, for example.
> Isn't 2.11BSD networking technically in userland? I forget. Johnny?
No, networking in 2.11BSD is not in userland. But it's not a part of
/unix either. It's a separate image (/netnix) that gets loaded at boot
time, but it's run in the context of the kernel.
I'd have to go and check this if anyone wants details. It's been quite a
while since I was fooling around inside there. Or maybe someone else
remembers more details on how it integrates.
Johnny
--
Johnny Billquist || "I'm on a bus
|| on a psychedelic trip
email: bqt(a)softjar.se || Reading murder books
pdp is alive! || tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol
> From: Clem Cole
> The 8 pretty much had a base price in the $30k range in the mid to late
> 60s.
His statement was made in 1977 (ironically, the same year as the Apple
II).
(Not really that relevant, since he was apparently talking about 'smart
homes'; still, the history of DEC and personal computers is not a happy one;
perhaps why that quotation was taken up.)
> Later models used TTL and got down to a single 3U 'drawer'.
There was eventually a single-chip micro version, done in the mid-70's; it
was used in a number of DEC word-processing products.
Noel
> From: Dave Horsfall <dave(a)horsfall.org>
>> one of the Watson's saying there was a probably market for
>> <single-digit> of computers; Ken Olsen saying people wouldn't want
>> computers in their homes; etc, etc.
> I seem to recall reading somewhere that these were urban myths... Does
> anyone have actual references in their contexts?
Well, for the Watson one, there is some controversy:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_J._Watson#Famous_attribution
My guess is that he might actually have said it, and it was passed down orally
for a while before it was first written down. The thing is that he is alleged
to have said it in 1943, and there probably _was_ a market for only 5 of the
kind of computing devices available at that point (e.g. the Mark I).
> E.g. Watson was talking about the multi-megabuck 704/709/7094 etc
No. The 7094 is circa 1960, almost 20 years later.
> Olsens's quote was about the DEC-System 10...
Again, no. He did say it, but it was not about PDP-10s:
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ken_Olsen
"Olsen later explained that he was referring to smart homes rather than
personal computers." Which sounds plausible (in the sense of 'what he meant',
not 'it was correct'), given where he said it (a World Future Society
meeting).
Noel
An ARPAnet pioneer, apparently he was born on this day in 1934, and was
famous for sending the first message over the ARPAnet in October 1969 (it
got as far as "LO" before crashing).
-- Dave
> Here's a Gootoob video (11m): it's a mechanical marvel!
A wonderful model, but quite unlike a TTY 37, where sender
and receiver are the same machine.
Doug
> I think RS took it and left it behind someone's car at one as a practical joke.
That behemoth was built to last. It would surely stop a car.
Moving it single-handed would be quite a feat. When Andy Hall
retired his, he was able to push it as far as his back porch,
where it remained for more than a year.
Under the keyboard was remarkable mechanical crossbar
encoder that dripped machine oil. Fortunately the operator's
knees were protected by a drip pan. The oil smell led me
to keep mine in my workshop; its fragrance reminded
me of the first major piece of computing equipment I saw
as a child: Vennevar Bush's mechanical differential
analyzer, a room-size table of shafts, gears and integrators
that was redolent of machine shop.
Doug
Hopkins had a KSR37 that was our standard word processing output for a long time before the daisy wheel printers started showing up.
It even had the "greek box" so when eqn or whatever wanted that, it just sent shift-in/shift-out (control-n, -o). Years later I managed to pick up a surplus ASR37 from Rocky Flats. I had it in my kitchen for years on a modem. It was great fun to have one of the few terminals that nroff would send all those ESC-8/9 things for the vertical positioning without needing an output filter. No greek box, though. It also had a giant NEWLINE key and didn't need to have the nl mode turned on. Amusingly the thing would sit there quiet until the modem was powered up and then DSR ready would bring it to life. When CD came up an giant green PROCEED light illuminated above the keyboard. The paper tape unit was a monster side car. I never got around to programming the "here-is" drum.
I think RS took it and left it behind someone's car at one as a practical joke.
