Hi friends,
I've been interested to get a PDP-11 for many years but the opportunity to acquire one at a reasonable cost and somewhat local had not presented itself. I finally found a system on craigslist and Lou N2MIY and I rented a cargo van and we drove about 30 miles to pick it up. Well, the system advertised in the craigslist ad was nowhere to be found but we did pick up some nice other items. It was a big haul (for me, anyway!).
Pictures can be seen here for those interested:
March 28 PDP-11 Pickup
Here is a general list of what we got (click link for directories of pictures):
Here are the modules in the 11/23 (thanks to http://www.pdp-11.nl/ for the field guide info!)
Code:
Slot 1 M8186 KDF11-A 11/23 CPU (Prior to etch rev. C, 18-bit
addressing only. Caution, uses BC1, BD1,
BE1, BF1 for purposes other than BDAL18-21)
Refs: EB-18451-20, MP00734, EH-17898-20, EK-KDF11-UG
Refs: EK-KDFAA-CG, ED-2136-20, ED-18325-53, uNOTEs N#006 Refs: N#017
Slot 2 M8059-KF MSV11-LK 128-Kword MOS RAM, single voltage
(Also M8059-KC, -KF, -KH, -KJ, -KP, -KV)
Refs: EK-MSV0L-UG, EK-MSV1L-CG, MP-01238, ZJ246-RZ
Slot 3 M8013 RLV11 RL01 disk controller, 1 of 2
18-bit DMA only
Caution: uses BC1 and BD1 for purposes other
than BDAL18 and BDAL19 Refs: EK-RLV11-TD, MP-00635, EB-20175-20
Slot 4 M8014 RLV11 RL01 bus controller, 2 of 2
Slot 5 M8043 DLVJ1-M 4-Line Asynchronous Interface (formerly DLV11-J)
(CS Rev. E or earlier incompatible with KDF11-A
and KDF11-B)
(CS Rev. E or later, ECO M8043-MR002 installed)
Refs: EK-DLV1J-UG, MP-00586, EB-20175-20, ZJ269-RZ Refs: uNOTE N#033
Slot 6 M7941 DRV11 16-bit parallel line unit
Refs: EK-ADV11-OP, MP-00054, EB-20175-20, ZJ244-RZ Refs: MP-00866 (unconfirmed)
Slot 7 M7941 DRV11 16-bit parallel line unit
Slot 8 M7941 DRV11 16-bit parallel line unit
Slot 9 M8012-YA BDV11 Bus terminator (120 ohm), bootstrap and
diagnostic ROMs, 18-bit only
Refs: EK-BDV11-TM, MP-00489, EB-20175-20, uNOTEs N#003
Refs: N#015, N#035
The PDP-11/73 has the following modules:
Code:
Slot 1 M8192 KDJ11-AA LSI-11/73 CPU, 8-Kbyte cache, not FPJ11-AA
compatibile (but can be upgraded)
Refs: EK-KDJ1A-UG, uNOTEs N#006, N#008, N#009, N#011
Refs: N#025, N#039
Slot 2 EMPTY
Slot 3 M8061 RLV12 RL01/RL02 disk control
Refs: EK-RLV12-UG, EK-RLV12-TD, MP-01282, ZJ285-RZ
Refs: uNOTE N#041
Slot 4 M8043 DLVJ1-M 4-Line Asynchronous Interface (formerly DLV11-J)
(CS Rev. E or earlier incompatible with KDF11-A and KDF11-B)
(CS Rev. E or later, ECO M8043-MR002 installed)
Refs: EK-DLV1J-UG, MP-00586, EB-20175-20, ZJ269-RZ
Refs: uNOTE N#033
Slot 9 M8012-YA BDV11 Bus terminator (120 ohm), bootstrap and
diagnostic ROMs, 18-bit only
Refs: EK-BDV11-TM, MP-00489, EB-20175-20, uNOTEs N#003
Refs: N#015, N#035
The microPDP has the following modules:
Code:
M8189 KDF11-BA Q 11/23-PLUS single-board CPU Refs: EK-KDFEB-UG, MP-01236, uNOTE N#015
M8067-LB MSV11-PL Q 512-Kbyte MOS memory with parity CSR, (Also M8067-LC, -LF, -LH, -LJ, -LP, -LV) Refs: EK-MSV0P-UG, MP-01239, ZJ246-RZ
EMPTY
M8639 RQDX1 Q RD51/52 & RX50 MFM Disk control module
(Needs microcode rev 9.0 code ROMs for RD52)
(Must be final device in bus)
Refs: EK-RQDX1-UG, MP-01731, uNOTE N#043
These were used in a manufacturing environment. Don't be fooled by the plastic wrap. The grime on every millimeter of these systems is serious. I've finally completed a thorough cleaning of all of it. Took many hours over several weekends. Every single chip on every board was coated. Every nook and cranny was packed with crud. Generous use of diluted simply green, canned air, vacuum cleaner, paper towels and 96% IPA wipes were consumed.
I think the general plan for this build is as follows:
1. Use the BA23 chassis from the microPDP and install into one of the nicer racks.
2. Use the PDP-11/73 CPU
3. I will acquire two 2MB M8637-E MSV11-JE boards (click for thread on Qbus RAM)
4. Use the various other modules in the haul for serial comms, RL02 and fixed HD controllers, etc
5. Lou N2MIY was kind enough to lend me an ethernet card and AUI converter
6. Maybe even get all 4 RL02 drives running
I am hoping to get this to run BSD and maybe other kinds of Unix? Not sure I have a LOT to learn about that. With all the RL02 packs I got should allow me to also create RT11 and who knows what other OS's I could play with!
Other future desires for this system include possibly:
1. upgrading to a PDP-11/83 to make use of the PMI that the M8637E allows.
2. Getting a microVAX CPU Card with the PMI RAM I could possibly use many of the qbus cards I have to build a VMS system.
3. It may be possible to pull out the 11/73(/83) CPU, and insert the uVAX card when i want to run VMS and do the opposite to run RT11/unix. But that is a much longer discussion!
NEXT STEPS:
Now that everything is cleaned, I will power up the power supplies on a variac (is this possible? Are these switchers or linears?) and make sure the caps are reformed. Then I will use my electronic load to load each rail of each power supply and make sure the ripple is within specs (I'll have to look up the specs). From there? Who knows!
I hope to continue to document this project here. I know virtually nothing about these machines but that is half the fun! Stay Tuned!
Eugene W2HX
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