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From: lwall@devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV (Larry Wall)
Newsgroups: comp.arch,comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: pdp-11/55
Message-ID: <662@devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV>
Date: Wed, 4-Nov-87 16:03:54 EST
Article-I.D.: devvax.662
Posted: Wed Nov  4 16:03:54 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 7-Nov-87 11:16:25 EST
References: <1755@ncr-sd.SanDiego.NCR.COM> <275@usl> <29933@sun.uucp> <2949@phri.UUCP> <15417@onfcanim.UUCP> <629@uthub.toronto.edu>
Reply-To: lwall@devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV (Larry Wall)
Organization: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA.
Lines: 26
Xref: mnetor comp.arch:2827 comp.unix.wizards:5331

We had an 11/50 at Seattle Pacific University.  (Before that we had an 11/20
on which we actually ran RSTS!  Swap city!)

The 16kw MOS memory was nice to put the BASIC+ runtime system in, but
about that time they started coming out with other runtime systems for RSTS, 
and the MOS memory didn't buy us much.  On top of which, the MOS was extremely
static sensitive and pooped out several times a year.  We sold the MOS memory
and bought a cache (from Able) for about the same price.  That made the whole
machine run faster, at much less of a price than a cabinetfull of bipolar.
The cache just sat on the FASTBUS and pretended to be very fast memory.
In fact, up to the point where it started thrashing, the 45 would outperform
an 11/70.  I still have a soft spot for that zippy little machine.

The Able folks were real nice too.  There was the time I shorted out one of our
power supplies, and the Able fellow tore it apart and fixed it himself.  DEC
field service would have had a fit if they'd found out, which they didn't.

The time DEC did have fits was their own fault--pushing a drawer back in they
shorted a power harness across the backplane.  Happened to be the pins for the
Unibus.  Fried just about every device up and down the bus.  To DEC's credit,
they fixed everything up, even the "foreign" stuff.  You've never seen a more
sheepish-looking field engineer.

Anyway, the FASTBUS could be used for more than just MOS and bipolar memory.

Larry Wall
lwall@jpl-devvax.jpl.nasa.gov