Mad acquisition (PDP 11/45) - Page 2 - UK Vintage Radio Repair and Restoration Discussion Forum

plumbweiss · 22nd Nov 2006, 11:02 pm

The Ibstock Brick company still use one of these to run their Staffordshire Brick Works, running the huge motorised kiln cars around the factory. It's dead reliable and we just get involved repairing the VDU's occasionally, they use PC based operator terminals networked to it. And I did my A-Level computer science on a Systime 11/36 (??) time sharing version in 1988 approx.

paulsherwin · 22nd Nov 2006, 11:15 pm

There are still quite a few PDP 11s sitting in factories running various control and data acquisition apps. Industrial users are very reluctant to change hardware for the sake of it and the things only get scrapped when the plant has a complete refit. Annual maintenance is a big cost though, and all the ones I've seen in the last couple of years are MicroPDPs which have lower maintenance costs.

There are still lots of uVax IIs out there as well, chugging away running something like VMS 4.6 from around 1986. I was actually earning money from an annual support contract for one of these until it was junked a couple of years ago.

Paul

jim_beacon · 23rd Nov 2006, 12:36 am

Just to go back a bit - the 11/45 PSU's are switched mode, but fed froma low voltage AC bus.

We still have a number of PDP11's in service at work, mainly 11/94 (Unibus), and 11/73 (QBUS micro PDP), but there are also 11/84's and at least three 11/34's. There are a huge number of VAX systems, mainly VAX station, but there are a couple of 6000's, and a very rare VAX FT.

Jim.

paulsherwin · 23rd Nov 2006, 1:23 am

Quote:

Originally Posted by jim_beacon

There are a huge number of VAX systems, mainly VAX station, but there are a couple of 6000's, and a very rare VAX FT.

Good grief, Vaxstations are getting *really* old for a desktop system. I believe they were between 1 and 5 MIPS, which is around the power of a 386 PC. These things are running X! Just goes to show how well VMS shares out the misery when it starts to load up.

There's a team trying to get Linux to run on Vax hardware: http://linux-vax.sourceforge.net/ BSD has (almost) always run on Vaxes of course. But, you'd have to be insane to run Unix on a Vax when you can use VMS

(As a forum moderator, I apologise sincerely for bringing this thread OT. Back to PDPs now please (don't hit me Paul

))

Paul

plumbweiss · 25th Nov 2006, 2:16 am

The PDP I mentioned looks like a couple of large spin dryers or fridges with neon rocker switches on the front. Pardon my ignorance but that's all I know about them.

http://www.nicoladagostino.net/icono...oli/pdp11f.jpg

jim_beacon · 25th Nov 2006, 9:54 am

The system in the picture is an 11/44 (last of the discrete logic UNIBUS 11's, from about 1979), Noit sure what is underneath the processor. The other cabinet has two RL type drives (5 or 10MB, depending on which model, changeable 14" disk platters).

There is also an original VT100 terminal, and, I think, an LA33 printing terminal (Decwriter II?).

I have most of those in the collection (not the LA33), and in a working system. It is just about quick enough to run UNIX, so it may be possible to put it on the net.....

Jim.

plumbweiss · 25th Nov 2006, 1:50 pm

Up until quite recently, the wiring looms for british-built Creda, Hotpoint and Electra washers and tumble dryers were manufactured on a PDP-run automated cut-n-crimp assembly machine. We supplied an operator terminal for it, we used a Qume QVT-something as replacement but had problems with the CR/LF/Backspace control characters.

22nd Nov 2006, 11:02 pm	#21
plumbweiss Retired Dormant Member Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Manchester, UK. Posts: 157	Re: Mad acquisition (PDP 11/45) The Ibstock Brick company still use one of these to run their Staffordshire Brick Works, running the huge motorised kiln cars around the factory. It's dead reliable and we just get involved repairing the VDU's occasionally, they use PC based operator terminals networked to it. And I did my A-Level computer science on a Systime 11/36 (??) time sharing version in 1988 approx.

22nd Nov 2006, 11:15 pm	#22
paulsherwin Moderator Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Oxford, UK Posts: 27,947	Re: Mad acquisition (PDP 11/45) There are still quite a few PDP 11s sitting in factories running various control and data acquisition apps. Industrial users are very reluctant to change hardware for the sake of it and the things only get scrapped when the plant has a complete refit. Annual maintenance is a big cost though, and all the ones I've seen in the last couple of years are MicroPDPs which have lower maintenance costs. There are still lots of uVax IIs out there as well, chugging away running something like VMS 4.6 from around 1986. I was actually earning money from an annual support contract for one of these until it was junked a couple of years ago. Paul

23rd Nov 2006, 12:36 am	#23
jim_beacon Retired Dormant Member Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Bishop's Waltham, Hants, UK. Posts: 939	Re: Mad acquisition (PDP 11/45) Just to go back a bit - the 11/45 PSU's are switched mode, but fed froma low voltage AC bus. We still have a number of PDP11's in service at work, mainly 11/94 (Unibus), and 11/73 (QBUS micro PDP), but there are also 11/84's and at least three 11/34's. There are a huge number of VAX systems, mainly VAX station, but there are a couple of 6000's, and a very rare VAX FT. Jim.

25th Nov 2006, 2:16 am	#25
plumbweiss Retired Dormant Member Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Manchester, UK. Posts: 157	Re: Mad acquisition (PDP 11/45) The PDP I mentioned looks like a couple of large spin dryers or fridges with neon rocker switches on the front. Pardon my ignorance but that's all I know about them. http://www.nicoladagostino.net/icono...oli/pdp11f.jpg

25th Nov 2006, 9:54 am	#26
jim_beacon Retired Dormant Member Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Bishop's Waltham, Hants, UK. Posts: 939	Re: Mad acquisition (PDP 11/45) The system in the picture is an 11/44 (last of the discrete logic UNIBUS 11's, from about 1979), Noit sure what is underneath the processor. The other cabinet has two RL type drives (5 or 10MB, depending on which model, changeable 14" disk platters). There is also an original VT100 terminal, and, I think, an LA33 printing terminal (Decwriter II?). I have most of those in the collection (not the LA33), and in a working system. It is just about quick enough to run UNIX, so it may be possible to put it on the net..... Jim.

25th Nov 2006, 1:50 pm	#27
plumbweiss Retired Dormant Member Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Manchester, UK. Posts: 157	Re: Mad acquisition (PDP 11/45) Up until quite recently, the wiring looms for british-built Creda, Hotpoint and Electra washers and tumble dryers were manufactured on a PDP-run automated cut-n-crimp assembly machine. We supplied an operator terminal for it, we used a Qume QVT-something as replacement but had problems with the CR/LF/Backspace control characters.