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From: jfh@killer.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.org.decus
Subject: Re: nostalgia-11
Message-ID: <725@killer.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 1-Apr-87 17:12:06 EST
Article-I.D.: killer.725
Posted: Wed Apr  1 17:12:06 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 4-Apr-87 20:17:13 EST
References: <543573110.aad@andrew.cmu.edu>
Organization: The Unix(tm) Connection, Dallas, Texas
Lines: 26
Summary: Booting UNIX on an 11/44

PDP-11's are great.  The first computer I was allowed to physically touch
was a PDP-11/45.  It had 124K words of CORE memory and a serial number
somewhere's down around 1000.  My second love was an LSI-11 at U.N.O.
Not only could we touch it, but we got to take apart, crash, reboot, etc.

All this leads up to why I love 11's.

This experience with real hardware warped me into a Hardware-Lover.  When
given the oppurtunity to get some extra credit installing UNIX on a PDP-11/44
I jumped at it.  My instructor (James "Nothead" Thomas) and I wound up
having to use RT-11 to read the distribution tape, and on one or more
occasions, console ODT, to get the machine to boot UNIX.

All this leads up to my one favorite thing - Memory Mapped I/O.

The climax of my college career was when I finally learned how to read in
a block from a TU-16 and run it.  I used this knowelege to impress more
than one fellow student.  Most of my class mates were into COBOL and BASIC,
so there was little competition if you knew ODT and could figure out the
device registers...

- john.		(jfh@killer.UUCP)

Bka - "Captain Porko - mad computer science student ..."

Personal Note - Clyde, UNIX really is nice, eh?