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From: marco@andromeda.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.org.decus,comp.unix.questions
Subject: PDP 11/23 : a summary of responses
Message-ID: <249@andromeda.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 19-Feb-87 21:32:26 EST
Article-I.D.: andromed.249
Posted: Thu Feb 19 21:32:26 1987
Date-Received: Fri, 27-Feb-87 02:07:12 EST
Organization: Franklin's Tower
Lines: 40
Keywords: small old dinosaurs
Xref: utgpu comp.org.decus:69 comp.unix.questions:1168


	About two weeks ago I asked for ideas about what to do with
some old PDP 11/23's I have hanging around.  I started to answer each
peice of mail, but would you believe that I got >25 responses ? (I 
stopped counting at 25).  So if I didn't answer, rest assured I read
yours...

	The suggestions I recieved boiled down to 3 basic categories :

A.  Use them as controllers, etc.  Run a real-time operating
system on them and drive lab data gathering equipment.

	Well, good idea, but I don't have a project to use them
on...  So someone suggested making one listen to the national time/date
radio broadcasts && thus getting accurate time reports.  Problem is the
code to do this turns out to be proprietary.  The most interesting idea I
got along these lines is to run the DECUS Forth on them, but since I don't
have a project this would really be just an excuse to have fun hacking. (hard
to get by management...)

B. Run BSD 2.9 or similar early UNIX on them. I even had offers to
help me find / supply software.  Use them for file/print/net servers.

	Again, lots of fun but hard to justify.  For what it would
cost me in power, maintenance, and administration time, I could run
3B2's much more efficiently, and run more modern software.  Remember,
these things need special power supply, AC, and the occasional service
call.

C. "Sell/Donate/Just_Plain_Give it to me"

	Sorry, but they're not *my* PDP's , I just work here.  so
I can't really dispose of them that way, much as I'd like them to go to
a good home instead of salvage.  But I will include the option in my
report, so for all you dinosaur collectors who want mine, maybe there's
still hope. :-)

			Many thanks to all who responded,

                                                       W.rat