[HECnet] This is probably been asked already but....

[Johnny Billquist]

On 2012-07-02 02:07, Dave McGuire wrote:
On 07/01/2012 07:47 PM, Johnny Billquist wrote:
Let's start with just the operating systems. I'm thinking of trying to
get something running via SIMH soon, but I can't promise anything
specific.

        That really opens it up. ;)   Simh emulates several platforms for
which
there are DECnet implementations:

        PDP-8: there's a DECnet implementation for OS/8.
        PDP-10: TOPS-10, TOPS-20
        PDP-11: RSTS/E, RSX-11/M/M+
        VAX: VMS, Ultrix

The PDP-8 DECnet is actually for RTS-8, and not OS/8. However, it's also
only PHASE II, so I think we could rule that one out.

      Oops!   My mistake, thank you for the correction.   I thought it was for
OS/8.   I consider myself to be a PDP-8 aficionado, but I've never seen
the DECnet implementation

I've had PDP-8s at home for the last 25 years...

    Nice!   Me too, for about the same amount of time. :-)   I love -8s.

PDP-8s are definitely fun machines.

I have DECnet-8, by the way. It's for RTS-8 V2. It's available on the
net if you search around...

    I hope to get around to messing with it sometime soon, now that I have
some space in which to work.

It's on a long list of things I'd like to look at. Don't see it happening anytime soon, considering how much other stuff I have on that list. :-)

For PDP-11, I think that there was also some kind of DECnet for RT-11.
And you have IAS, as well as (probably) RSX-11D.

      I don't think there was a DECnet for RT-11, but I could be wrong.

There was. Megan Gentry commented several years ago on a thread we had,
that it was Phase III only. There was some initial plans and work to get
it to Phase IV, which she was involved in, but it was cancelled.
I don't have that code, though.

    Oh my!   I wonder who DOES have that code.   We should see if we can
track it down.

Megan might. Probably one or two other people as well, but I have very few clues about RT-11...

Isn't IAS basically a chopped-down RSX?

No. IAS is a separate thread in the RSX family, but it's based on -11D,
as far as I understand. Seems to have had some really cool features, but
I've never actually used it, only read some manuals.

In some ways, it reminds me a lot of VMS. Much more of the same
attitudes like VMS. It implements all kind of stuff.

    Oh ok.   Sounds interesting.   I had a manual set for RSX-11/M V4.0 for
my first -11 ages ago, and there was mention of IAS on just about every
page; apparently there was quite a bit of common code and/or design.   I
didn't know it was that divergent.   I've never messed with it, but now
I'm interested in finding it to explore.

Well, basically all userland is compatible between RSX and IAS. Internally, they differ a lot.
So, for manuals, all tools and the like were shared between RSX and IAS. Also layered products were shared.

Did you ever about some unused parameters in RSX, which as the PRIO parameter in a QIO$? Well, in IAS those are used...
Also, device drivers in IAS are actual, normal tasks, and not special pieces of code mapped and run in the context of the kernel.
IAS also works in three different "modes". If I remember it was something like real-time mode, program development/interactive and batch. Exactly what the differences were I'm not entirely sure, and one did not totally exclude the other.

You can read a little more at: http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CFEQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.compaq.com%2Finfo%2FSP1465%2FSP1465PF.PDF&ei=BunwT96MMof_4QT0guDeDQ&usg=AFQjCNGADbPhyLdBLrlzmP6VpU4-dvU5Xw&sig2=ujktbnglbLpP5C1jig24yg
(Sorry for the ugly long link...)

	Johnny

-- 
Johnny Billquist                                   || "I'm on a bus
                                                                  ||   on a psychedelic trip
email: bqt at softjar.se                         ||   Reading murder books
pdp is alive!                                         ||   tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol