28 Jul
2016
28 Jul
'16
3:03 a.m.
Clem cole wrote:
Yep. We used it for both but discovered it tended to
be better for our system as a /tmp because we tried really hard to keep the 11/70 from
swapping in those days.
Clem
Sent from my PDP-7 Running UNIX V0 expect things to be almost but not quite.
That gave the AT&T folks (and Regional Bells) a major improvement over
the RS04 (and less of a maintenance problem) and the Computer Special
Systems folks at DEC had a way to use less than perfect MK11 memory
since the embedded internal ML11 disk controller mapped out bad blocks
in NVRAM so it looked like a clean disk. I remember stories about a 3x
improvement in some of the 11/70's jobs,
I don't know what apps were on the box. Might have been COSMOS or
something else.
When I saw the Windows Ready Boost and Intel Turbo memory I really
flashed (ugh pun not intended) to the day I installed the early
ML11... Nothing new in the OS business that wasn't done in the old
days. Unfortunately, there's very little love for history in the industry.
My college major was history... so I love the connected nature of the
designs. It's all an evolution.
Bill
> On Jul 27, 2016, at 5:10 PM, William Pechter
<pechter(a)gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Clem Cole wrote:
>> That is exactly how its was done. In fact, DEC made a Solid State Disk (out of
RAM) just for UNIX that people used to use for /tmp.
> Are you referring to the slick little ML11-A (I think it was an -A when I installed
it at NY Telephone on
> West Street, next to the World Trade Center...
>
> I seem to remember it being used as an RS04 (or similar) fixed head disk replacement
for swap -- but
> it could've been used for temp.
>
> Funny seeing a fault light on a Massbus controller'd box of mostly MK11 memory.
> IIRC it had write-lock as well.
>
> Neat idea and I wish someone would come up with a really large SSD with a writelock
for archival storage
> of my stuff. No head crashes and if I could disable the possibility of accidental
writing...
>
> Bill
>
> --
> Digital had it then. Don't you wish you could buy it now!
> pechter-at-gmail.com http://xkcd.com/705/
>