[Simh] Various

[Johnny Billquist]

On 2020-02-14 01:35, Timothe Litt wrote:
> On 13-Feb-20 19:21, Johnny Billquist wrote:
>> On 2020-02-13 17:42, Clem Cole wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>> On Thu, Feb 13, 2020 at 11:38 AM Clem Cole <clemc at ccc.com 
>>> <mailto:clemc at ccc.com>> wrote:
>>>
>>>     I think I saw a card read/punch only once on a PDP-6 IIRC, but it
>>>     might have been a KA10.   I don't think I ever saw one on a PDP-8/11
>>>     or Vaxen.
>>>
>>> The more I think about it, there must have been one or two in the 
>>> mill or the machine room in MRO, but I just can not picture them.
>>
>> As far as I know, there was no punch for the PDP-8 or PDP-11. However, 
>> there were readers.
>>
>> And the PDP-11 reader controller sat on the Unibus, so it would not be 
>> hard to get it working on a VAX either. If that was officially 
>> supported or not I don't know, though.
>>
>> There were a bunch of PDP-11 Unibus peripherals that was never 
>> supported on a VAX. DECtape comes to mind, as well as RK05.
>>
>>   Johnny
>>
> 
> See my previous note.

Came to yours later...

> The punches you mention do exist, as do others (Not particularly common 
> or popular):
> 
>   * PDP-11: CP11-UP Punch interface for Univac 1710 Card RDR/PUNCH

Was that a CSS product perhaps? Even looking at the PDP-11 Peripherals 
handbook from 1976 don't mention it. There is only CM11, CR11 and CD11. 
All three are card reader only.

Haven't manage to find anything on bitsavers yet, but there are a bunch 
of places to search, so I might just have missed it.

> Card readers were sold and supported on all systems thru VAX.

Thanks for clarifying that for me. I wasn't at all sure about the VAX.

> Someone wrote a DECtape driver for VAX - I think Stan R., though it 
> wasn't supported.  DECtape controllers are odd devices - the TD10 is 
> reasonably smart, but the others put realtime constraints on the drivers 
> that could be hard to meet.  Anyhow, by the time the VAX came out, TU58 
> and Floppies were cheaper and denser media.

I actually do remember seeing it. Fun thing. :-)

> There was also an unsupported DECtape driver for TOPS-20.

KLs with DECtape was always only Tops-10?

   Johnny

-- 
Johnny Billquist                  || "I'm on a bus
                                   ||  on a psychedelic trip
email: bqt at softjar.se             ||  Reading murder books
pdp is alive!                     ||  tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol