[Info-vax] pdp11

[Dan O'Reilly]

...and while we're at it, I have a few BRU-format 1600bpi magtapes written
on an RSX system 25 years ago that I would LOVE to have the contents of.
Can anybody help out?

-----Original Message-----
From: info-vax-bounces at rbnsn.com [mailto:info-vax-bounces at rbnsn.com] On
Behalf Of Glenn Everhart
Sent: Tuesday, November 16, 2010 3:15 PM
To: info-vax at rbnsn.com
Subject: [Info-vax] pdp11

Yes, I remember running DOS on pdp11; first did that with DOS V4, which
became known as DOS/BATCH in V8 and later.

Anyone still interested in running it, I have some old DECtapes (for TU56
drives, yes) that still have copies of DECUS 11-195 on them. That is a
sub-monitor that can either greatly extend (and somewhat speed up) DOS-11 or
also allow it to service 2 users at a time.

(Seeing that you have at most 28K words of memory, it's tough to get more
than two sets of CUSPs in memory at once. However I successfully used it
with a 16K word machine with two users running....one driven by command
files. There was also a print spooler that could run as a kinda/sorta third
user in the mix.)

If anyone can still read TU56 I would be glad to let them have the tapes in
exchange for their letting me have a copy of the contents. The DECUS library
used to have them but I don't know that they are still extant anywhere.

DOS-11 would sort of run on DECtape, but there was a limit on its DECtape
handling on the number of files that could be open on one DECtape at a time,
which made it not very useful.
Also what with all the swapping from disk that DOS did when PCP11/MFT11 (the
DECUS 11-195 thing) was not loaded, watching it run was an exercise for the
VERY patient...a bit like running VMS on a remote virtual disk over a 9600
baud link. Interesting that it can be done at all, but not something you do
unless desperate for some reason.

Glenn Everhart

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