[Simh] 'Building' a PDP-11

Sat Oct 15 15:44:31 EDT 2011

The recent RSX-11M+ "Baseline" (BL) monitors that come with the distribution will boot just fine on very simple configurations, e.g. 11/73 with 4 MB memory and a couple RQ-type hard disk images and will do just fine with TMSCP type emulation (e.g. TK50). All except the very earliest 11M+ MSCP drivers are sane and will talk to good sized disk image. Only the very latest 11M+'s will talk to 4gigabyte+ disks though. Moving stuff in and out via disk and tape images is pretty ideal IMHO.

If you want to do something like add additional RQ controllers in a SYSGEN that works. Baseline comes supporting 4 disks on one controller which might have been a little limiting with real RA80's or RD54's but with virtual disks you just make them bigger.

Adding DECNET... assuming you mean Ethernet. Been a while since I did that. But I bet it'll come back to me if you show me any problems :-)

e.g.

shoppa at shoppa-desktop:~/simh$ ./BIN/pdp11

PDP-11 simulator V3.8-0
sim> set cpu 4096k
Disabling CR
Disabling RK
Disabling HK
Disabling TM
sim> show cpu
CPU, 11/73, NOCIS, idle disabled, autoconfiguration on, 4088KB
sim> att rq0 rsx11mpbl87.dsk
sim> boot rq0
RSX-11M-PLUS V4.6  BL87   2044.KW  System:"RSXMPL"
>RED DU:=SY:
>RED DU:=LB:
>RED DU:=SP:
>MOU DU0:"RSX11MPBL87"
>@DU:[1,2]STARTUP
>; 			PLEASE NOTE
>;
>;	If you have not yet read the system release notes, please do so
>;	now before attempting to perform a SYSGEN or to utilize the new
>;	features of this system.
>;
>* Please enter time and date (HH:MM DD-MMM-YYYY) [S]: 15:33 15-oct-2011
>TIME 15:33 15-oct-2011
>ACS SY:/BLKS=1024.
>CON ONLINE ALL
>ELI /LOG/LIM
>CLI /INIT=DCL/CTRLC/DPR="<15><12>/$ /"
>INS LB:[1,1]RMSRESAB.TSK/RON=YES/PAR=GEN
>INS LB:[1,1]RMSLBL.TSK/RON=YES/PAR=GEN
>INS LB:[1,1]RMSLBM.TSK/RON=YES/PAR=GEN
>INS $QMGCLI
>INS $QMGCLI/TASK=...PRI
>INS $QMGCLI/TASK=...SUB
>QUE /START:QMG
>INS $QMGPRT/TASK=PRT.../SLV=NO
>QUE LP0:/CR/NM
>START/ACCOUNTING
>CON ESTAT LP0:
>QUE BAP0:/BATCH
>QUE BAP0:/AS:BATCH
>@ <EOF>
>sho dev
VF0:	 Offline Loaded Type=unknown
VF1:	 Offline Loaded Type=unknown
CO0:	 TT0: Loaded
TT0:	 [200,200]   [200,200] - Logged in  Loaded
TT1:	 Offline Loaded
VT0:	 Loaded
VT1:	 Loaded
RD0:	 Loaded
DL0:	 Loaded Type=RL01  
	 Seek_Optimization=Nearest:10.

DL1:	 Loaded Type=RL01  
	 Seek_Optimization=Nearest:10.

DU0:	 Public Mounted Loaded Label=RSX11MPBL87 Type=RD54  
DU1:	 Loaded Type=RD54  
DU2:	 Loaded Type=RD54  
DU3:	 Loaded Type=RX50  
MU0:	 Loaded Type=TK50  
NL0:	 Loaded
TI0:	
CL0:	 TT0:
SP0:	 DU0:
LB0:	 DU0:
SY0:	 DU0:

________________________________________
From: simh-bounces at trailing-edge.com [simh-bounces at trailing-edge.com] On Behalf Of Mark Benson [md.benson at gmail.com]
Sent: Saturday, October 15, 2011 3:18 PM
To: simh at trailing-edge.com
Subject: [Simh] 'Building' a PDP-11

Hi,

I'm trying to bootstrap a 'simple' PDP-11 for use with RSX-11M Plus 4.2 and eventually DECnet and wondered if anyone had a hardware setup recommendation for the SIMH simulator.

I am not after a large plethora of devices. A lot of the 'peripherals', like the punch tape reader/punch, various cartridge drives, terminal multiplexers etc,  (which are fascinating real hardware) seem redundant for me as I am not building an environment for a particular application or environment, I intend to use it to run some languages and talk to my VAX and Alpha but that's more-or-less it.

I am also confused as to wether to use a QBus or UNIBUS machine. The UNIBUS machines seem more popular, and the XU UNIBUS ethernet controller has a driver in the 11M Plus SYSGEN that the Q-Bus controller does not have.

Is there a 'real' world machine that is fairly basic that I could use to bas my simulation on? Maybe an 11/83 or 11/84? About the only specification I currently need is a TK50 tape drive to read the install tape and a hard drive (an RQ is preferable so I can transfer the images tot he VAX emulator if needed and that's possible?) but that aside I'm otherwise open to suggestions.

Thirdly I'd like to attach a terminal to a telnet port on the host computer too, if possible, as I'm aware that unlike a VAX running VMS 7.3 I am unlikely to be able to use telnet into a TCP/IP stack?

Aside from the actual simulations this has been a very interesting voyage through specs, manuals, pictures and even the odd video of these crazy old beasts. While I can't see myself owning a PDP-11 I am keen to at least experience the use of RSX-11M to see what they were like.

Thanks for any help :)

--
Mark Benson

My Blog:
<http://markbenson.org/blog>
Follow me on Twitter:
http://twitter.com/mdbenson

"Never send a human to do a machine's job..."

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