[Info-vax] OpenVMS async I/O, fast vs. slow

[Johnny Billquist]

On 2023-11-10 14:32, Simon Clubley wrote:
> On 2023-11-09, Johnny Billquist <bqt at softjar.se> wrote:
>> On 2023-11-09 17:50, Dan Cross wrote:
>>> In article <uig3nn$2ke$2 at news.misty.com>,
>>> Johnny Billquist  <bqt at softjar.se> wrote:
>>>> On 2023-11-08 03:00, Dan Cross wrote:
>>>>> [snip]
>>>>> Yes.  See below.
>>>>
>>>> :-)
>>>>
>>>> And yes, I know how the cache coherency protocols work. Another thing
>>>> that was covered already when I was studying at University.
>>>
>>> Cool.  MESI wasn't presented until 1984, so you must have seen
>>> it pretty early on.
>>
>> I think I was looking at it in 1995 (what made you think I would have
>> looked at it close to 1984? How old do you think I am??? :) ). My
>> professor was specifically focused on CPU caches. He was previously the
>> chief architect for high-end server division at SUN (Erik Hagersten if
>> you want to look him up).
>> I didn't even start at University until 1989.
>>
> 
> That makes you a lot younger than I thought you were, given your interest
> in RSX, which (along with the PDP-11 itself) was pretty much obsolete by
> that point. IOW, I certainly thought you were old enough to qualify for
> a Senior citizen's travel pass... :-)
> 
> What got you interested in RSX in that case ?

I was playing with computers way before I started at University. When I 
started in the Gymnasium in Sweden (1982), we shared one PDP-11/70 
running RSTS/E between four schools. Having a multiuser system, and 
being able to communicate with people in other places were really cool, 
and I was a big fan of RSTS/E. (Never got into PCs because of this.)
And this all, of course, led to computer clubs, and I got involved with 
one that had a PDP-11/40 on which we eventually got RSX up and running. 
And I just found that there were things in RSX that I found nicer than 
in RSTS/E, so for my playing around, I start switching more and more 
into RSX. And then I got into VMS pretty naturally from there. Worked at 
DEC for a while, and eventually started at University (where they were 
running DEC-20s), and of course yet again a computer club. This one had 
a PDP-8/I, but soon got a PDP-11/34. And me being the person around who 
was most experienced with that architecture, I sortof started running 
more PDP-11 stuff and RSX again, at after that it's mostly been what 
I've been doing for fun.

   Johnny