[Simh] PDP 11/40 or better kit?

[Christian Gauger-Cosgrove]

On 5 January 2016 at 21:53, Will Senn <will.senn at gmail.com> wrote:
> I just came across a pi+simh driven PDP8/I replica:
>
> http://obsolescence.wix.com/obsolescence#!pidp-8/cbie
>
> Is there anything similar for 11/40 or 11/70 or etc? I've seen software
> versions and program on a chip versions like pdp2011:
> http://pdp2011.sytse.net/wordpress/pdp-11/
>
The answer in short is: Yes and no.

Henk Gooijen built a "PDP-11/70 in a box":
<http://pdp-11.nl/homebrew/cons1170/cons70startpage.html>
Though the write-up on it is incomplete (and possibly it too is
incomplete). Though it should give you a hint as to the way the
console of the 11/70 (and also of the 11/40, and 11/45; as well as
their variants the 11/35, 11/50, and 11/55) are not as easy to
reproduce as the console of a PDP-8/i, or even a PDP-8/E.

Also on the RetroCMP site (<http://retrocmp.com/>) you can find a few
projects describing connecting a real panel to a SIMH instance.


But those projects are all built off of getting your hands on a real
PDP-11 front panel. Which is both expensive, and detrimental to the
health of the PDP-11 the panel came from.


Now, on the Classiccmp mailing list there has been discussion by Rod
Smallwood in the UK about creating replica panels, or so far at least
just the plexiglass part. He's currently working on a replica of the
panel for the PDP-8/E. They're designed to be "drop-in" replacements
for damaged panel. I think if the project to do the PDP-8/E panels are
a success he will be moving on to the PDP-11 machines.

Though that's only just the panel plexiglass. Bezel, keyswitches, and
actual electronics? Not covered. And as you can see the bezel and
keyswitches of the PDP-11/70 (and also of the 35, 40, 45, 50, and 55)
are pretty "different" and hard (impossible) to get in the here and
now.

You could, of course, eschew exact replication for convenience. And
coincidentally, the panel of the PDP-11/74 actually is much like the
panel of a PDP-11/20 or PDP-8/E so there is precedence of using a
"vertical" panel with "normal" keyswitches on the big PDP-11s. (But
the 11/74 was in "medi-systems"/"corporate" blue/white livery, as
opposed to "the 70s are here, and want their computer back"
mauve/orange-red/black livery; then again you could find a normal
11/70 and its panel in said "medi-systems"/"corporate" blue, just look
at the DECdatasytem-570. And DEC being DEC you could just get OEM
machines that have consoles coloured however the hell you want.)



Getting away from the topic of the physical panel itself: SIMH
supports the interfacing necessary to drive a panel, so that's nice
and good.


> but, this is an actual physical represenation at less than $140 bucks that
> can play space war with the addition of an hdmi monitor (20 bucks) and I was
> wondering if anyone knew of a physical replica system of the 11/40 or
> better.
>
Well, SIMH does support the VT11 graphics subsystem, so you can run
Lunar Lander or GAMMA-11 if you felt like it. (Actually: Can the VT11
support the colour monitors? Or is it black and white only?)


Cheers,
Christian
-- 
Christian M. Gauger-Cosgrove
STCKON08DS0
Contact information available upon request.