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Old computers did it better!
10-28-2018, 08:13 PM
Post: #21
RE: Old computers did it better!
(10-28-2018 07:04 PM)toml_12953 Wrote:  
(10-20-2018 05:39 PM)Zaphod Wrote:  I want one of these
http://obsolescence.wixsite.com/obsolesc...11-get-one

I have one (as well as Oscar's PiDP-8) and can vouch for the quality of his kits. If you buy one you won't regret it (unless you're married to a practical woman!)

I'm currently running BASIC on four serial terminals and still have a console free to do system changes. It's an amazing little kit!
TomL, I'd sure like to see a picture of your setup.

Don
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10-28-2018, 11:51 PM
Post: #22
RE: Old computers did it better!
(10-28-2018 07:04 PM)toml_12953 Wrote:  I have one (as well as Oscar's PiDP-8) and can vouch for the quality of his kits. If you buy one you won't regret it (unless you're married to a practical woman!)

I'm currently running BASIC on four serial terminals and still have a console free to do system changes. It's an amazing little kit!

Are RSX-11/M, RT-11, and RSTS/E all available?

--Bob Prosperi
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10-29-2018, 01:06 AM
Post: #23
RE: Old computers did it better!
(10-28-2018 11:51 PM)rprosperi Wrote:  Are RSX11/M, RT-11, and RSTS/E all available?

Yes, and more. See here for a full list. Anything running under simh is available, and an FPGA implementation of the 11/70 is in the works.

~Mark

Remember kids, "In a democracy, you get the government you deserve."
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10-29-2018, 03:29 AM
Post: #24
RE: Old computers did it better!
(10-29-2018 01:06 AM)mfleming Wrote:  
(10-28-2018 11:51 PM)rprosperi Wrote:  Are RSX11/M, RT-11, and RSTS/E all available?

Yes, and more. See here for a full list. Anything running under simh is available, and an FPGA implementation of the 11/70 is in the works

Thanks Mark. Wow, that's quite a list; all an 11/70 fan could want.

I remember clearly when we upgraded our 11/70 from 64KB to 128KB RAM. Enough for more than 20 simultaneous users. Ah, those were the days...

--Bob Prosperi
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10-29-2018, 04:08 AM
Post: #25
RE: Old computers did it better!
(10-28-2018 11:51 PM)rprosperi Wrote:  
(10-28-2018 07:04 PM)toml_12953 Wrote:  I have one (as well as Oscar's PiDP-8) and can vouch for the quality of his kits. If you buy one you won't regret it (unless you're married to a practical woman!)

I'm currently running BASIC on four serial terminals and still have a console free to do system changes. It's an amazing little kit!

Are RSX-11/M, RT-11, and RSTS/E all available?

Yes, also various versions of Unix. Just about all operating systems that ran on the original PDP-11/70 are available for the PiDP-11. It uses a Raspberry Pi (hence the name) with the SIMH emulator. You can try out SIMH with Linux or Windows before you buy a PiDP-11 and then copy the disk image you create over to the PiDP-11 once you get it and it will run there the same as on your PC. The PiDP-11 comes with DOS-11, Unix v6, Unix v7, Unix v5, RT11 v4.0, RSTS v06C-03, XDXP, RT-11 3B, RT-11 v5.4F, RSTS 4B-17, BSD 2.9, RSX 11M v3.2, RSTS/E v7.0, XXDP, ULTRIX-11 v3.1, BSD 2.11, RSTS/E 9.6, and RSX 11M v4.6. Of course these may not be configured the way you want them but you can install from any install kits DEC made available online. In my case, I wanted RSTS/E 10.1 so I found an install tape image and installed it on a new disk pack image. I also installed BASIC PLUS 2 v9.7 from an install tape. Now my system runs just the way I want it to. It does run much faster on a PC but even on the PiDP-11 it's much faster than on a real PDP-11/70.

Tom L
Cui bono?
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10-31-2018, 02:50 PM
Post: #26
RE: Old computers did it better!
(10-31-2018 01:05 PM)eg64293 Wrote:  Oh yeah, RSX 11M - the last real realtime OS I've programmed for and worked with decades ago. Brings back fond memories. Never experienced anything comparable thereafter.

If I remember right (odds less than even) there were multiple variants of RSX-11, for different types of uses. I think RSX-11/M was the Multi-user, but there were also 2 (maybe more) other flavors, and I think one of those was the realtime version, wasn't it? Was it RSX-11/S ??

--Bob Prosperi
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10-31-2018, 05:29 PM (This post was last modified: 10-31-2018 05:37 PM by Zaphod.)
Post: #27
RE: Old computers did it better!
(10-28-2018 07:04 PM)toml_12953 Wrote:  I have one (as well as Oscar's PiDP-8) and can vouch for the quality of his kits. If you buy one you won't regret it (unless you're married to a practical woman!)

I'm currently running BASIC on four serial terminals and still have a console free to do system changes. It's an amazing little kit!

I was in the list and the email came in a couple of days ago.
I had to say I’ll pass just for now and I’ll rejoin the list, I’ve got the dosh but I’m trying to pace myself ? lol
The guy

I’ll perhaps get one before/for Christmas , I had a nice, informative email exchange with Oscar.
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11-01-2018, 10:29 PM
Post: #28
RE: Old computers did it better!
(10-27-2018 08:29 PM)EugeneNine Wrote:  
(10-26-2018 11:12 PM)Sukiari Wrote:  All modern Intel computers run Minix inside the hardware backdoor spy chip. They also run another proprietary OS called UEFI. You’re running two OS’s before you even boot the machine.

I was referring to the OS the end user interacts with. Most on that thread are comparing their old computers to Win/MAC and wondering why the new suck so much. They don't realize you can run a decent OS on new PC's (Linux, minix, FreeBSD, AROS, etc) and get close to the same experience as old computers.

I do run Linux (Ubuntu), and although 90% of my computer problems disappeared when I dumped MS and Windows, there are still times that it's apparently doing garbage collection or maybe has task-scheduling problems and may not respond to the keyboard or the mouse buttons for 15 seconds at a time! There's absolutely no excuse. This might be a Mozilla problem though, because I've only seen that problem with Firefox and Thunderbird. I know it's not disc-swapping, because the hard-disc light is not on. When the HP-41 is packing, at least it tells you why it's delaying.

http://WilsonMinesCo.com (Lots of HP-41 links at the bottom of the links page, http://wilsonminesco.com/links.html )
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11-01-2018, 11:14 PM (This post was last modified: 11-01-2018 11:16 PM by EugeneNine.)
Post: #29
RE: Old computers did it better!
Firefox has gotten pretty bad, I ended up switching to Chromium (Chromium is chrome without Google for those that aren't aware.)

I've been running Slackware since 2002, once or twice I managed to run it out of memory and start swapping and become slow but thats the only times. usually its when my son wants to play minecraft and has me load some huge buggy modpack.
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11-02-2018, 03:34 AM
Post: #30
RE: Old computers did it better!
(11-01-2018 11:14 PM)EugeneNine Wrote:  Firefox has gotten pretty bad, I ended up switching to Chromium (Chromium is chrome without Google for those that aren't aware.)

I've been running Slackware since 2002, once or twice I managed to run it out of memory and start swapping and become slow but thats the only times. usually its when my son wants to play minecraft and has me load some huge buggy modpack.

I still like Firefox but you have to muck with a lot of settings in about:config for privacy and speed. These days I do most of my browsing in the Tor Browser to protect myself from corporate data mining. This site, for example, uses Cloudflare but if you block it it still works fine. Why use it at all if it's not needed? I'm tired of being tracked.
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