[Info-vax] OT: Computing Experience, What brought you to VMS?

[Roger Ivie]

I first ran into VMS when I graduated from high school and went
to Utah State University. They were moving students from a 
Burroughs 6800 to a couple of VAX 11/780s connected by DECnet;
I had accounts on both and used both. But it didn't take long
for the Burroughs to be retired and everything moved to the VAX.

During the summer of '83, while still a college student, I took a 
summer job that involved assisting an electrical engineer in one 
a simulation lab. There I did some work on RT-11 (1/23+ class machine), 
RSX-11 (PDP-11/60), but mostly worked with a group of four 11/780s 
connected via an MA780 multi-ported memory.

Wrote my first device driver to accept some hardware we purchased
from a company up in Logan, where USU is located. After the summer
job was up, I called them up and asked them if they needed a 
VAX person. They happened to, and so I wound up being the sole
user of a VAX-11/780. That job involved pumping data over a DR-780
to a system that included an embedded PDP-11/73 running RT-11. I
was involved in code on bothe VAX and the PDP-11.

They were a contract engineering firm, so I had lots of fun, most
of it DEC-centered. Did RT-11 work, VMS work, embedded programming,
and hardware design, primarily with a real-time emphasis.

Did quite a bit of contract work for DEC. I designed the TURBOchannel
adapter for the VAXstation 4000/60 and /90, wrote about half of
the embedded 8051 code for DEC's SCSI floppy controller, and designed
the notoriously slow FQAM Q-Bus adapter for the Firefox.

However, the contract work dried up after 9/11, so I called up 
one of our clients looking for work. They made a place for me,
where I'm still doing real-time VMS work, including device drivers,
and embedded programming. Haven't done any hardware work in 
about a decade, though.

Currently working with Itaniums and Alphas; our VAXen have been
retired.
-- 
roger ivie
rivie at ridgenet.net