[HECnet] Can we hook this up to a VAX or something?

[Johnny Billquist]

On 2011-08-23 20:10, Paul_Koning at Dell.com wrote:
Oh no.   A TU58 is a joke device that connects via a UART; the driver for it is a pile of software that speaks
a packet protocol over that UART to send/receive the data.

Indeed. And thus, the only thing you need on your computer, to interface to a TU58, is a serial port.

The TU56 is a classic PDP-11 style DMA device, hooked to a Unibus interface.
It looks somewhat like an old style disk interface (like the RK05 or RP04) except
that you first had to seek to the required block number (by doing read block number
operations until the right number shows up).   Also, a TU56 is reliable, unlike a TU58.

And fast... Don't forget that part! ;-)
The TU58 is horrible...