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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!rutgers!seismo!rochester!ciaraldi
From: ciaraldi@rochester.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.org.decus,comp.unix.questions
Subject: Re: 11/23's
Message-ID: <24361@rochester.ARPA>
Date: Sat, 31-Jan-87 18:09:57 EST
Article-I.D.: rocheste.24361
Posted: Sat Jan 31 18:09:57 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 1-Feb-87 16:21:52 EST
References: <221@andromeda.UUCP>
Reply-To: ciaraldi@rochester.UUCP (Mike Ciaraldi)
Organization: U of Rochester, CS Dept, Rochester, NY
Lines: 37
Keywords: Small old dinosaurs
Xref: watmath comp.org.decus:48 comp.unix.questions:875

In article <221@andromeda.UUCP> marco@andromeda.UUCP (the wharf rat) writes:
>
>What can you do with PDP 11/23 's ?? I've got a couple of the things
>hanging around from old projects, and while I hate to throw 'em out,
>I really can't think of anything useful to do with the beasties.  They're
>too tall for terminal stands and too big for paperweights :-)  I think
>they have something like 16 K and two RL02's each.  Any ideas ?

As some who followed this newsgroup a few months ago know,
I know someone who ran a large bookstore with  an 11/23.
He had 256K RAM, 2 (later 4)  RL02's, and 3 terminals,
all running TSX+.

The system worked fine for many years, and was recently
(2 weeks ago) upgraded to an 11/73.

Thanks to the help and suggestins of several people on the et,
we were able to upgrade by buying a new (to us)  22-bit chassis,
11/73 processor, and a 4Meg memory board.  Cost was about $5500.
Now it runs three times as fast, and should be able to handle
the 6 terminals we want quite easily.

Only snag so far is that the version of TSX+ we have (2.1) will
only address 256K, so we have to spend another $600 to get
the new release (6.4).

The lesson is that, with enough memory (not all that
expensive), a PDP-11/23 can do quite a bit.

My recommendation:  Either find a used computer
dealer who will buy the parts, or donate it
to  a school or other non-profit organization.
It will be a lot more useful than the
Ataris peole are giving them.

Mike Ciaraldi
seismo!rochester!ciaraldi