29 May
2018
29 May
'18
8:55 a.m.
From: Paul Winalski
DZ11s ... the controller had no buffer
Huh? The DZ11 did have an input buffer. (See the 'terminals and communications
handbook', 1978-79 edition, page 2-238: "As each character is received ...
the data bits are placed ... in a .. 64-word deep first-in/first-out hardware
buffer, called a 'silo'.")
Or did you mean output:
if you were doing timesharing it could bring the CPU
to its knees in
short order
The thing that killed an OS was the fact that output was programmed I/O, a
character at a time; using interrupt-driven operation, it took an interrupt
per character. So for a 9600 baud line, 9 bits/character (1 start + 7 data + 1
stop - depending on the line configuration), that's about 1000 characters per
second -> 1000 interrupts per second.
The DH11 used DMA for output, and was much easier on the machine.
Noel