Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ulowell!sky!hamill
From: hamill@sky.COM (John Hamill)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.dec
Subject: Re: Does any one use a DEC PDP-11/03 anymore?
Message-ID: <495@sky.COM>
Date: 1 Apr 89 05:44:50 GMT
References: <13238@sequent.UUCP>
Reply-To: hamill@sky.COM (John Hamill)
Organization: SKY Computers, Lowell MA
Lines: 24

In article <13238@sequent.UUCP> brians@sequent.UUCP (Brian Sheets) writes:
>I know what you are going to say, "GOD, why?"           
>
>I have aquired one of these things and I wonder what is available software and
>hardware wise. Can I run unix, can I run a bbs, what can I do with this thing.
>

	Well, Brian, it will make a nice, if not bulky paperweight! I used
a PDP-11/03 at ULowell to learn macro-11 assembly, maybe you could brush up
on your assembly skills. As far as I know, it will run RT-11, and a friend
of mine did have a bulletin board set up on his, (he had an old Heathkit
PDP-11). If it's a Q-bus PDP-11, there are all kinds of aftermarket boards
you can buy for it, memory upgrade, A/D, D/A etc,. You can't run unix as 
far as I know, in fact the only thing I have ever seen run on an 11/03 was
RT-11. You might be able to run RSX-11 on it also. The 11/03 is pretty similiar
to the more usefull 11/23, except it only supports 16-bit address and the 
instruction set is more limited, there's no mult or div commands. You may
be able to add the EIS chip though. But hell, if you have a Q-bus box,
junk the PDP-11, and buy a microvaxII cpu board and a disk drive, and
own your own microvax!

J. Hamill  Electrical Engineering    | "If the budget's down, remove the
University of Lowell                 |  light bulbs!"   "It's the Duke's
Lowell, MA                           |  fault!"