On 2015-06-26 20:10, Timothe Litt wrote:
On 26-Jun-15 13:43, Hittner, David T (IS) wrote:
What PDP-11 used TU58’s, and what controller did the drive connect to?
Dave
11/23, 11/44, VT103, HSC50 -- among others.
Yes.
Host: Any RS232/423 (dumb) interface, e.g. DL(V)11, MXV11. 9600 - 38400
BPS using a packet protocol (RSP, IIRC) with XON/XOFF flow control
RSP was the initial protocol. There were some issues with it that meant
it had problems on loaded/slow systems, so a modified version was
developed, called MRSP if I remember right. Very similar, though.
The drive itself has an embedded 8085 CPU that is the real controller.
It's not terribly smart.
The protocol is roughly similar to MSCP (lighter-weight); the tape is
block-addressable, normally the 512 byte DEC standard block, although
there's a 128 byte record mode for dealing with buffering/comm issues.
Normally the controller assembles 4 records to make a block. Cartridge
is formatted with 512 blocks of 512 bytes each (0.25 MB).
Eh? In which way would it be similar to MSCP? I can't see any relation
at all, unless you just mean that you read and write blocks with it. But
then again, that is true of any controller.
However, it is very simple. You can hack together a driver in almost no
time. And, as mentioned, the hardware is just a serial port.
Johnny
http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/dec/dectape/tu58/ has the docs.
This communication may not represent my employer's views,
if any, on the matters discussed.
*From:*Simh [mailto:[email protected]] *On Behalf Of
*Bill Cunningham
*Sent:* Friday, June 26, 2015 1:14 PM
*To:* Hans-Ulrich Hölscher; [email protected]
*Subject:* EXT :Re: [Simh] TU58 device for PDP-11s
----- Original Message -----
*From:*Hans-Ulrich Hölscher <mailto:[email protected]>
*To:*[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
*Sent:*Friday, June 26, 2015 12:56 PM
*Subject:*[Simh] TU58 device for PDP-11s
Am I right that there is currently no TU58 device available for
the PDP-11 series of computers?
If so, would someone be so kind as to implement it?
Thanks in advance to all programmers who ponder on evetually doing it!
Regards,
Ulli
I don't know about simh, but there are several simulators out
there. There is something for linux too. But it sounds like a
worthy cause.
Bill
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