[pups] What hard drives to look for for PDP-11 use?

[rdkeys at unity.ncsu.edu]

> Hi Bob -

Hello.....

> > From: rdkeys at unity.ncsu.edu
> > Steven.... I have been thinking of trying to find a PDP-11 of some sort
> > (like hunting for needles in a hay stack in this part of the woods, but
> 
> 	Interesting.   I wouldn't have thought an 11/73 or similar would
> 	be too hard to find.

Most of the PDP stuff has long since been surplussed, and I have trolled
the local newsfeeds but nothing seems to turn up.  VAXen are the usual
fare, since PDP's were not that common around here.  The RTP NC area did
not really get big into computering until the VAX era.

> > 1.  What mfm hard drives from the non-DEC world could be adapted to
> >     work on a PDP-11?
> 
> 	Tim has already jumped in with a pointer or two.
> 
> > 2.  Can any scsi drives be used (RZ-23's or that kind of thing?).
> 
> 	Oh yes!   But you need to have a Qbus SCSI<->MSCP controller.  They
> 	are easy to _find_ but quite *expensive*.   Not as expensive as
> 	they were when I shelled out US$1500 for a new Emulex UC08 (and that
> 	with a good discount - the sales person was sympathetic to my
> 	explanation this was for a 'hobby').    Used CMD, Emulex or Dilog
> 	controllers will run around $500-900.

I fell into a MVII yesterday that has a Dilog controller.  Is that the
one you are talking about?  If so, that could be a lucky find.

Here's a crazy, but possible thought.... can I write 211BSD drives from
a MicroVAX II and move the card/drives over to the PDP-11 and have a
reasonable expectation that they will work, or at least boot to a root
or a miniroot or such?  It is a long shot, but if I am just dd'ing
images, it might work, I would think.

One of my goals with the MVII is to use it to write 9 track tapes, IFF
I can lay hands on one of several 9 trackkers in surplus in the next
few weeks.  They were originally used on a local VAXsystem 5400 crate
and are single ended scsi Ciphers.  Could they be used on a PDP-11, too?

> 	Once you have gotten over the sticker/exchequer shock the upside
> 	is that you can use about many SCSI disk or tape drives that other
> 	folks are tossing otu because they're too small.   The older ~300MB
> 	and 1GB disks that are not useful on modern systems are great in
> 	a PDP-11 environment.    Uh, don't bother putting a 73GB Cheetah
> 	on an 11 ;)

I have plenty of the RZ55/56/57/58ish things that have popped up in
surplus that I am using on my VAXstation toyz.  All the PeeCee types
avoid them like the plague, and I truck them out by the handfull.
MooU was big on those and DS5000/200 crates.  They are now hitting
surplus quite frequently.

> 	One place that lists CMD and Emulex controllers is:
> 
> 		http://www.ficompinc.com
> 
> > I will assume the target OS is 2.11BSD or 2.9BSD, since those seem
> > to handle the greatest assortment of hardware types.
> > 
> > Can any of these non-DEC drives be adapted to MVII use?
> 
> 	At one time I had a uVax-II with a Dilog DQ696 (I think that was 
> 	the model number) that had a couple ESDI drives on it - a ~300MB
> 	Miniscribe disk and a couple Maxtor RD53 sized drives.

I had one of those, too, a few months back, but stripped the MVI it came
out of, without thinking of hanging onto that card.  Minus two points for
me.  Someone else was lucky that day.....(:+}}...

> > Can any of the early MFM or ESDI Sun drives be used?
> 
> 	Definitely.    Emulex QD33 and QD35 adaptors (in addition to the
> 	Dilog DQ696) ring a bell as far as non-SCSI disks go.

I have half a dozen of these early Sun drives in storage, so that is
good to know, and I did save the 650mb esdi drive from the MVI, thinking
I could use it on a Sun, but never got around to it.

> 	Steven Schultz
> 	sms at moe.2bsd.com

Thanks for the tidbits folks!

Bob

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