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

Dave McGuire mcguire at neurotica.com
Mon Jul 2 01:07:31 PDT 2012


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.

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.

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.

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.

                              -Dave

-- 
Dave McGuire, AK4HZ
New Kensington, PA



More information about the Hecnet-list mailing list