Re: [Flexradio] [OT] Mac mini as PowerSDR machine
On Wed, Aug 20, 2008 at 3:31 PM, K6JEK <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: I fought Moore's law bravely for over thirty years and > thought I had the hardware guys on their knees most of the time. But > now maybe they've finally got the lead. Dang. :-) And a noble campaign it was, old soldier! They're still cutting corners where it really matters, though -- memory bandwidth. You can cache and pipeline multiple execution cores until you're blue in the face. It's still really hard and expensive to move bits living in the rest of the world, into and out of your local processor address space. 73 Frank AB2KT -- All who think cannot but see there is a sanction like that of religion which binds us in partnership in the serious work of the world. -- B. Franklin ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kb.flex-radio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flex-radio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] [OT] Mac mini as PowerSDR machine
Have the hardware guys won? I spent my whole career in software. I figured my job was to make enough software that even with the advances in hardware whatever it was you wanted to do was still slow. I fought Moore's law bravely for over thirty years and thought I had the hardware guys on their knees most of the time. But now maybe they've finally got the lead. Dang. Jon On Aug 20, 2008, at 9:04 AM, Frank Brickle wrote: > On Wed, Aug 20, 2008 at 7:10 AM, Peter G. Viscarola > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > >> I spent some time looking this up (Google being my friend)... the >> Cray-1 >> was widely reported as being capable of 100-200 MFlops/second. > > > Not just speed. Memory was awfully short too, by current standards. 1 > megaword of 64-bit words == 8 megabytes, which is not much. > > On top of that, all of the speed came from vectorization. That's no > help at > all if what you need is a fast MAC. > > 73 > Frank > AB2KT > > -- > All who think cannot but see there is a sanction like that of > religion which > binds us in partnership in the serious work of the world. -- B. > Franklin > ___ > FlexRadio Systems Mailing List > FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz > http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz > Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ > Knowledge Base: http://kb.flex-radio.com/ Homepage: http:// > www.flex-radio.com/ > ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kb.flex-radio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flex-radio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] [OT] Mac mini as PowerSDR machine
Yup working with a PDP8E, with 4 memory fields = total 24k bytes. additional one and a half 19inch rack full of "flip chips" Using "databreak" to get a back and white picture of 4096 bits (pixels) in memory every 0.2 sec. was 1972 I remember. We build I think 14 of such machines. 7402 (Halt instuction PDP8) 73 groeten Peter websitehttp://www.homepages.hetnet.nl/~petervn/ <https://netmail.hetnet.nl/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.homepages.hetnet.nl/~petervn/> petervn-at-hetnet-nl pa0pvn-at-hetnet-nl pa0pvn-at-amsat-org only large files:pa0pvn-at-gmail-com There are 10 kind of people, those who can count to 1010 on their fingers, and those who count to 11. Van: [EMAIL PROTECTED] namens Lee Mushel Verzonden: wo 20-8-2008 14:50 Aan: K6JEK; FlexRadio Reflector Onderwerp: Re: [Flexradio] [OT] Mac mini as PowerSDR machine A PDP-8? Brings back awful memories of tons of hours I spent wire wrapping in 1971! We were going to computerize a rotogravure printing press. But snip - ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kb.flex-radio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flex-radio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] [OT] Mac mini as PowerSDR machine
On Wed, Aug 20, 2008 at 7:10 AM, Peter G. Viscarola <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I spent some time looking this up (Google being my friend)... the Cray-1 > was widely reported as being capable of 100-200 MFlops/second. Not just speed. Memory was awfully short too, by current standards. 1 megaword of 64-bit words == 8 megabytes, which is not much. On top of that, all of the speed came from vectorization. That's no help at all if what you need is a fast MAC. 73 Frank AB2KT -- All who think cannot but see there is a sanction like that of religion which binds us in partnership in the serious work of the world. -- B. Franklin ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kb.flex-radio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flex-radio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] [OT] Mac mini as PowerSDR machine
Just as a point of reference, an ATI Radeon HD 4800 series video card can do 1 TFlops/second (yes, that's Teraflops - 1x10^12 floating point operations per second). Pretty amazing for cards in the sub $200 range. It's not hard to see why folks would try to make these GPUs into general purpose machines. Eric -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Peter G. Viscarola Sent: Wednesday, August 20, 2008 9:10 AM To: FlexRadio Reflector Subject: Re: [Flexradio] [OT] Mac mini as PowerSDR machine > >A Cray-1 ain't *nearly* enough machine to run it, sad to say. > Now THAT's interesting. I LOVE the comparisons between the old gear I used to use and that we thought was so fast with the ordinary PCs we take for granted daily. MAN, I remember being AMAZED by the speed of the Cray-1 back in the late 70s. I still have the architecture manual around here somewhere. I spent some time looking this up (Google being my friend)... the Cray-1 was widely reported as being capable of 100-200 MFlops/second. Depending on what you measure and how (SSE? SSE3?) Xeon machines today are capable of between 800 and 4,000 MFlops/second. YMMV and all that. So... a PC beats a Cray-1 hands-down. And while the PC will fit on your desk, it doesn't have the comfy leather cushions around the outside (over the power supplies). So, the Cray still wins by that measure. Peter K1PGV ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kb.flex-radio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flex-radio.com/ ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kb.flex-radio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flex-radio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] [OT] Mac mini as PowerSDR machine
> >A Cray-1 ain't *nearly* enough machine to run it, sad to say. > Now THAT's interesting. I LOVE the comparisons between the old gear I used to use and that we thought was so fast with the ordinary PCs we take for granted daily. MAN, I remember being AMAZED by the speed of the Cray-1 back in the late 70s. I still have the architecture manual around here somewhere. I spent some time looking this up (Google being my friend)... the Cray-1 was widely reported as being capable of 100-200 MFlops/second. Depending on what you measure and how (SSE? SSE3?) Xeon machines today are capable of between 800 and 4,000 MFlops/second. YMMV and all that. So... a PC beats a Cray-1 hands-down. And while the PC will fit on your desk, it doesn't have the comfy leather cushions around the outside (over the power supplies). So, the Cray still wins by that measure. Peter K1PGV ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kb.flex-radio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flex-radio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] [OT] Mac mini as PowerSDR machine
A PDP-8? Brings back awful memories of tons of hours I spent wire wrapping in 1971! We were going to computerize a rotogravure printing press. But then the company ran out of money and couldn't afford shielded wire and actually ran all of the signal wires in the same wireway as the 50 Hp motor power etc. if you can imagine such a thing! The job didn't last long but I'll tell you I learned a lot about noise in signal runs! So when I first started planning on where to put the 5000A no one had to tell me to order plenty of common mode chokes and take care of ground connections! And try to keep in mind that I'm a chemist, not an EE. 73 Lee K9WRU - Original Message - From: "K6JEK" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "FlexRadio Reflector" Sent: Wednesday, August 20, 2008 1:39 AM Subject: Re: [Flexradio] [OT] Mac mini as PowerSDR machine > Looks like a bunch of us old computer geezers are Flex users. > > Anyway fellow computer geezers, if you get out to my neck of the > woods, Silicon Valley, visit the Computer History Museum. It has a > lot of that good old stuff and some of it is running. They have a > Cray 1. If they'd fire it up, maybe we could get a chunk of the > Flex software running on it. Wouldn't that be a kick? > > Jon > > On Aug 18, 2008, at 9:34 AM, <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > wrote: > > > Brings back memmories... > > Still love VMS and alpha processors as well, > > dit a lot of wirewrapping on PDP8. lots > > of external harware processing. > > It is not allways the bests that win... > > (own a "strait 8"(don't dare to switch in on), LSI11 and a desctop > > VAX) > > 73 peter pa0pvn > > > > groeten Peter websitehttp://www.homepages.hetnet.nl/ > > ~petervn/ <https://netmail.hetnet.nl/exchweb/bin/redir.asp? > > URL=http://www.homepages.hetnet.nl/~petervn/> > > petervn-at-hetnet-nl pa0pvn-at-hetnet-nl pa0pvn-at-amsat-org > > only large files:pa0pvn-at-gmail-com > > There are 10 kind of people, those who can count to 1010 on their > > fingers, > > and those who count to 111111. > > > > > > > > > > Van: [EMAIL PROTECTED] namens Mike Naruta > > Verzonden: ma 18-8-2008 15:24 > > Aan: Brian Lloyd; FlexRadio > > Onderwerp: Re: [Flexradio] [OT] Mac mini as PowerSDR machine > > > > > > > > Wow, RSX-11M? I haven't used that in a > > quarter-century. Gary Unruh and I wrote > > a 3GL for it that kept a big roomful of > > data entry gals happy on a PDP 11/70 with > > 2 MEGAbytes of memory. I even cobbled up > > a clock card for it so I could run 45.45 > > baud and copied the 20 meter RTTY autostart > > net at the same time. I think I still > > have a copy of my Baudot to ASCII converter > > assembler program and the custom card. I > > got pretty nervous changing the wirewrap > > on that expensive CPU in order to get access > > to my oddball clock card. I think it was > > 150 baud that I hacked to 45.45 baud. Gary, > > a veteran IBMer, was my mentor. What a guy, > > brilliant! > > > > I loved the way it kept the old versions > > of your files and you could purge /Keep ;2 > > to delete everything but the current version > > and one previous copy when disc space got > > tight. > > > > I used to have to key the bootstrap loader > > program on the console switches in binary > > to start it. I think I still remember the > > program. > > > > Somehow I don't think the DEC 11/70 would > > be fast enough to do the DSP. > > > > > > Any HP MPE fans here? Now there was an > > intuitive system. Too bad the cryptic > > UNIX killed it. I loved HP's TurboImage. > > That was a bulletproof database. It > > was lightning fast, if you kept up on > > DB maintenance. In a decade, I only lost > > one morning's worth of data to a crash. > > This was before RAID. I remember one day > > realizing that I hadn't booted the system > > for a year and a half. Over 60 simultaneous > > users. Try THAT with Windows. > > > > > > Mike - AA8K > > > > > > Brian Lloyd wrote: > > > >> > >> Precisely. Having to run Windows just ... well, anything would be > >> better: Linux, Solaris, BSD, MacOS, BeOS, VMS, RSX-11M, RSTS-E, > >> RT-11, > >> CP/M, OS-8, OS/MVT, ITS, Multics ... > >> > > > > ___
Re: [Flexradio] [OT] Mac mini as PowerSDR machine
On Tue, Aug 19, 2008 at 11:39 PM, K6JEK <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > They have a > Cray 1. If they'd fire it up, maybe we could get a chunk of the > Flex software running on it. Wouldn't that be a kick? A Cray-1 ain't *nearly* enough machine to run it, sad to say. And, speaking as one of the people responsible for the C compiler for it, I can testify that it probably wouldn't even compile, either :-/ 73 Frank AB2KT -- All who think cannot but see there is a sanction like that of religion which binds us in partnership in the serious work of the world. -- B. Franklin ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kb.flex-radio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flex-radio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] [OT] Mac mini as PowerSDR machine
Looks like a bunch of us old computer geezers are Flex users. Anyway fellow computer geezers, if you get out to my neck of the woods, Silicon Valley, visit the Computer History Museum. It has a lot of that good old stuff and some of it is running. They have a Cray 1. If they'd fire it up, maybe we could get a chunk of the Flex software running on it. Wouldn't that be a kick? Jon On Aug 18, 2008, at 9:34 AM, <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Brings back memmories... > Still love VMS and alpha processors as well, > dit a lot of wirewrapping on PDP8. lots > of external harware processing. > It is not allways the bests that win... > (own a "strait 8"(don't dare to switch in on), LSI11 and a desctop > VAX) > 73 peter pa0pvn > > groeten Peter websitehttp://www.homepages.hetnet.nl/ > ~petervn/ <https://netmail.hetnet.nl/exchweb/bin/redir.asp? > URL=http://www.homepages.hetnet.nl/~petervn/> > petervn-at-hetnet-nl pa0pvn-at-hetnet-nl pa0pvn-at-amsat-org > only large files:pa0pvn-at-gmail-com > There are 10 kind of people, those who can count to 1010 on their > fingers, > and those who count to 11. > > > > > Van: [EMAIL PROTECTED] namens Mike Naruta > Verzonden: ma 18-8-2008 15:24 > Aan: Brian Lloyd; FlexRadio > Onderwerp: Re: [Flexradio] [OT] Mac mini as PowerSDR machine > > > > Wow, RSX-11M? I haven't used that in a > quarter-century. Gary Unruh and I wrote > a 3GL for it that kept a big roomful of > data entry gals happy on a PDP 11/70 with > 2 MEGAbytes of memory. I even cobbled up > a clock card for it so I could run 45.45 > baud and copied the 20 meter RTTY autostart > net at the same time. I think I still > have a copy of my Baudot to ASCII converter > assembler program and the custom card. I > got pretty nervous changing the wirewrap > on that expensive CPU in order to get access > to my oddball clock card. I think it was > 150 baud that I hacked to 45.45 baud. Gary, > a veteran IBMer, was my mentor. What a guy, > brilliant! > > I loved the way it kept the old versions > of your files and you could purge /Keep ;2 > to delete everything but the current version > and one previous copy when disc space got > tight. > > I used to have to key the bootstrap loader > program on the console switches in binary > to start it. I think I still remember the > program. > > Somehow I don't think the DEC 11/70 would > be fast enough to do the DSP. > > > Any HP MPE fans here? Now there was an > intuitive system. Too bad the cryptic > UNIX killed it. I loved HP's TurboImage. > That was a bulletproof database. It > was lightning fast, if you kept up on > DB maintenance. In a decade, I only lost > one morning's worth of data to a crash. > This was before RAID. I remember one day > realizing that I hadn't booted the system > for a year and a half. Over 60 simultaneous > users. Try THAT with Windows. > > > Mike - AA8K > > > Brian Lloyd wrote: > >> >> Precisely. Having to run Windows just ... well, anything would be >> better: Linux, Solaris, BSD, MacOS, BeOS, VMS, RSX-11M, RSTS-E, >> RT-11, >> CP/M, OS-8, OS/MVT, ITS, Multics ... >> > > ___ > FlexRadio Systems Mailing List > FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz > http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz > Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ > Knowledge Base: http://kb.flex-radio.com/ Homepage: http:// > www.flex-radio.com/ > > > > ___ > FlexRadio Systems Mailing List > FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz > http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz > Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ > Knowledge Base: http://kb.flex-radio.com/ Homepage: http:// > www.flex-radio.com/ > ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kb.flex-radio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flex-radio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] [OT] Mac mini as PowerSDR machine
> > There was a floating point module you could plug into the Unibus. I > had one on my 11/34. We used it in a simulation for tracking solar > charged particles when they interacted with various planetary > magentospheres. Do you realize that the PDP-11 Floating Point Processor was considered so high tech that it was prohibited for export out of the United States? Seriously, it was on the list of embargoed equipment. > The problem was, the program took 11 days to run in > real time. We ran it on RSX-11M because on power fail it would save > state of the machine in core and then restart everything, including > unfinished I/O's when the power was restored. This is why core was > much preferred over MOS memory. > Yes! With MOS memory you could get the optional batter backup unit... but nobody really trusted that MOS stuff. Give me those little donuts of core any day. > I preferred event-driven, multi-tasking OS's like RSX. If you liked RSX-11M (not to be confused, by the way, with RSX-11D which used an entirely different kernel), you should LOVE Windows. Same basic architecture, really. DPC (Windows) = Fork List (RSX). I used to teach people how to write drivers and such for RSX-11M (and IAS) for Digital, back in the day. Peter K1PGV ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kb.flex-radio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flex-radio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] [OT] Mac mini as PowerSDR machine
On Aug 18, 2008, at 6:24 AM, Mike Naruta wrote: > Wow, RSX-11M? I haven't used that in a > quarter-century. Gary Unruh and I wrote > a 3GL for it that kept a big roomful of > data entry gals happy on a PDP 11/70 with > 2 MEGAbytes of memory. I even cobbled up > a clock card for it so I could run 45.45 > baud and copied the 20 meter RTTY autostart > net at the same time. I think I still > have a copy of my Baudot to ASCII converter > assembler program and the custom card. I > got pretty nervous changing the wirewrap > on that expensive CPU in order to get access > to my oddball clock card. I think it was > 150 baud that I hacked to 45.45 baud. Gary, > a veteran IBMer, was my mentor. What a guy, > brilliant! I wrote a RTTY program that ran on RSX-11M using the DZ-11 mux board since it could be programmed to run at 5 bits, 2 stop bits and 50 bauds. It worked just fine talking to teleprinters running at 45.45 bauds. There was only 1/2 a bit of error by the time you got to the end of the character. There was a LOT of slop when sending and receiving 5-bit Baudot RTTY as the old model 15 and 29 teleprinters were never quite on-speed. Two stop bits ensured that the mechanical teleprinter had time to catch up before the next start bit. > I loved the way it kept the old versions > of your files and you could purge /Keep ;2 > to delete everything but the current version > and one previous copy when disc space got > tight. Yes, that was cute. I do think that hierarchical file systems are better, backups notwithstanding. If you like that feature check out ZFS. It provides that feature as part of the file structure thus allowing you to roll the file system or even an individual file back to any given point in time. When it does a write it does not write over previous data. It keeps the previous data indexed (journaled) so you can find it again. In essence you have a record of all the writes you have ever done to a given file. *VERY* cool. It is why I build my network-attached storage using Solaris running ZFS. (Solaris might be a good platform to run the SDR code as it runs on the same hardware, offers the same features as Linux, but has much better software quality assurance and patch tracking than does Linux. It is still too complex but seems very stable and pretty reliable.) > I used to have to key the bootstrap loader > program on the console switches in binary > to start it. I think I still remember the > program. Ah, you should have had one with core memory. You keyed the bootloader (do you remember the difference between the RIM and BIN loaders?) and it stayed in high core because core never forgets. Unless your program scribbled on the bin loader it was always there. The RIM loader was easier to key in from the front panel but the paper tapes were huge since the format of the tape was address:data/ address:data/address:data for each memory location. I had a BIN loader tape in RIM format. I would key in the RIM loader by hand then use that to load the BIN loader which I then left in core until my program ran amok and scribbled over it. DEC even had an early PROM-based loader. The "PROM" was a bunch of diodes you soldered in, one for each '1' bit. It had something like thirty-two 16-bit "words". Most people kept the RIM loader in that but some had a real disk bootloader. It would just issue the I/O request to the disk controller to transfer the first sector of the disk into low-core and then jump to location zero when it was done. Amazing what you can do with just 32 words. > Somehow I don't think the DEC 11/70 would be fast enough to do the > DSP. There was a floating point module you could plug into the Unibus. I had one on my 11/34. We used it in a simulation for tracking solar charged particles when they interacted with various planetary magentospheres. The problem was, the program took 11 days to run in real time. We ran it on RSX-11M because on power fail it would save state of the machine in core and then restart everything, including unfinished I/O's when the power was restored. This is why core was much preferred over MOS memory. > Any HP MPE fans here? Now there was an > intuitive system. Too bad the cryptic > UNIX killed it. I loved HP's TurboImage. I ran on HP 2100s and 21MXs. I forget the OS but it was very much like RT-11. (I think it was called RTE.) We were trying to automate the burn and intensive-care units at a hospital. My job was building dedicated uP-controlled data-collection units and interfacing them with the HP-21MX over RS-232. I learned a lot more about human physiology and pulmonary function than I ever wanted to know. I preferred event-driven, multi-tasking OS's like RSX. > > That was a bulletproof database. It > was lightning fast, if you kept up on > DB maintenance. In a decade, I only lost > one morning's worth of data to a crash. > This was before RAID. I remembe
Re: [Flexradio] [OT] Mac mini as PowerSDR machine
Brings back memmories... Still love VMS and alpha processors as well, dit a lot of wirewrapping on PDP8. lots of external harware processing. It is not allways the bests that win... (own a "strait 8"(don't dare to switch in on), LSI11 and a desctop VAX) 73 peter pa0pvn groeten Peter websitehttp://www.homepages.hetnet.nl/~petervn/ <https://netmail.hetnet.nl/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.homepages.hetnet.nl/~petervn/> petervn-at-hetnet-nl pa0pvn-at-hetnet-nl pa0pvn-at-amsat-org only large files:pa0pvn-at-gmail-com There are 10 kind of people, those who can count to 1010 on their fingers, and those who count to 11. Van: [EMAIL PROTECTED] namens Mike Naruta Verzonden: ma 18-8-2008 15:24 Aan: Brian Lloyd; FlexRadio Onderwerp: Re: [Flexradio] [OT] Mac mini as PowerSDR machine Wow, RSX-11M? I haven't used that in a quarter-century. Gary Unruh and I wrote a 3GL for it that kept a big roomful of data entry gals happy on a PDP 11/70 with 2 MEGAbytes of memory. I even cobbled up a clock card for it so I could run 45.45 baud and copied the 20 meter RTTY autostart net at the same time. I think I still have a copy of my Baudot to ASCII converter assembler program and the custom card. I got pretty nervous changing the wirewrap on that expensive CPU in order to get access to my oddball clock card. I think it was 150 baud that I hacked to 45.45 baud. Gary, a veteran IBMer, was my mentor. What a guy, brilliant! I loved the way it kept the old versions of your files and you could purge /Keep ;2 to delete everything but the current version and one previous copy when disc space got tight. I used to have to key the bootstrap loader program on the console switches in binary to start it. I think I still remember the program. Somehow I don't think the DEC 11/70 would be fast enough to do the DSP. Any HP MPE fans here? Now there was an intuitive system. Too bad the cryptic UNIX killed it. I loved HP's TurboImage. That was a bulletproof database. It was lightning fast, if you kept up on DB maintenance. In a decade, I only lost one morning's worth of data to a crash. This was before RAID. I remember one day realizing that I hadn't booted the system for a year and a half. Over 60 simultaneous users. Try THAT with Windows. Mike - AA8K Brian Lloyd wrote: > > Precisely. Having to run Windows just ... well, anything would be > better: Linux, Solaris, BSD, MacOS, BeOS, VMS, RSX-11M, RSTS-E, RT-11, > CP/M, OS-8, OS/MVT, ITS, Multics ... > ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kb.flex-radio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flex-radio.com/ ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kb.flex-radio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flex-radio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] [OT] Mac mini as PowerSDR machine
Yep, Gerald has made the right decisions. Look how this group is changing communications! I am so eager for the VR re-write. Peter G. Viscarola wrote: > > Sigh... I *miss* the PDP-11. Best assembler language ever. > > The PDP-11 would BE the PC today, if Digital in its later years had a > clue and knew how to license it properly. But they clung to their > restrictive O/S (and processor design) licensing schemes, and their > out-dated notions of what a "computer" was. I remember Ken Olsen > calling the IBM PC a "toy"... Thus is the definition of "paradigm > shift", eh? > > Peter > K1PGV > > ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kb.flex-radio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flex-radio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] [OT] Mac mini as PowerSDR machine
> >Wow, RSX-11M? I haven't used that in a >quarter-century. Gary Unruh and I wrote >a 3GL for it that kept a big roomful of >data entry gals happy on a PDP 11/70 with >2 MEGAbytes of memory. > Sigh... I *miss* the PDP-11. Best assembler language ever. The PDP-11 would BE the PC today, if Digital in its later years had a clue and knew how to license it properly. But they clung to their restrictive O/S (and processor design) licensing schemes, and their out-dated notions of what a "computer" was. I remember Ken Olsen calling the IBM PC a "toy"... Thus is the definition of "paradigm shift", eh? Peter K1PGV ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kb.flex-radio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flex-radio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] [OT] Mac mini as PowerSDR machine
Wow, RSX-11M? I haven't used that in a quarter-century. Gary Unruh and I wrote a 3GL for it that kept a big roomful of data entry gals happy on a PDP 11/70 with 2 MEGAbytes of memory. I even cobbled up a clock card for it so I could run 45.45 baud and copied the 20 meter RTTY autostart net at the same time. I think I still have a copy of my Baudot to ASCII converter assembler program and the custom card. I got pretty nervous changing the wirewrap on that expensive CPU in order to get access to my oddball clock card. I think it was 150 baud that I hacked to 45.45 baud. Gary, a veteran IBMer, was my mentor. What a guy, brilliant! I loved the way it kept the old versions of your files and you could purge /Keep ;2 to delete everything but the current version and one previous copy when disc space got tight. I used to have to key the bootstrap loader program on the console switches in binary to start it. I think I still remember the program. Somehow I don't think the DEC 11/70 would be fast enough to do the DSP. Any HP MPE fans here? Now there was an intuitive system. Too bad the cryptic UNIX killed it. I loved HP's TurboImage. That was a bulletproof database. It was lightning fast, if you kept up on DB maintenance. In a decade, I only lost one morning's worth of data to a crash. This was before RAID. I remember one day realizing that I hadn't booted the system for a year and a half. Over 60 simultaneous users. Try THAT with Windows. Mike - AA8K Brian Lloyd wrote: > > Precisely. Having to run Windows just ... well, anything would be > better: Linux, Solaris, BSD, MacOS, BeOS, VMS, RSX-11M, RSTS-E, RT-11, > CP/M, OS-8, OS/MVT, ITS, Multics ... > ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kb.flex-radio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flex-radio.com/
