> On May 15, 2019, at 7:25 PM, Jules Richardson via cctalk
> <cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote:
>
>
> Hey all,
>
> I bumped into someone who has some early (mid 1970 on some of the photos I've
> seen) PDP-11 bits - front panel and a handful of boards (the backplane, PSU,
> rack, peripherals etc. are long gone). The front panel's branded as
> "Industrial 11" though, which isn't something I've seen or heard of before.
>
> Address bus is 16 bits wide, and aside from the branding, the style appears
> to be the same as an 11/05 or 11/10. Were there any differences to the system
> internally though, or in the standard set of boards fitted, or was the
> "industrial" aspect purely a marketing exercise?
There was a "Rugged 11", a PDP11/20 variant with actual packaging changes, for
example sturdier switches on the console panel. I've only seen photos of that
one.
The "Industrial" thing you mentioned sounds more like a "product line" variant.
DEC had a lot of groups focused on particular business categories, which it
called "product lines". That meant a marketing and sales focus on those
businesses, but might also include specialized software products, hardware
bundles, or the like.
For example, the newspaper product line created Typeset-11 software, the VT20,
61t, and 71 terminals, custom interfaces to phototypesetters, and
software/hardware/support bundled packages for turnkey systems to sell to
newspapers. The telephone product group created Assist-11 directory assistance
database software, and later was the original vehicle for DEC to deliver Unix
to customers who wanted it. Educational products group created PDP-11 systems
with software bundles and a different paint job (light/dark blue rather than
red/maroon).
I have a plastic ruler made as a marketing tchotchke by the industrial products
group. They may well have done more substantive stuff, like industrial control
interfaces or product bundles focused on those customers.
paul
