[HECnet] DECnet-RT?

[Paul Koning]

> On Mar 27, 2020, at 11:47 AM, Robert Armstrong <bob at jfcl.com> wrote:
> 
>> Paul Koning <paulkoning at comcast.net> wrote:
>> As a Phase III node it would be DDCMP only ...
>> I don't remember if it supports any synchronous interfaces ...
> 
>  There are no device drivers included with RT11 for anything that I
> recognize as a synchronous interface, so I would assume it only supported a
> standard asynchronous serial port.
> 
>  But that's another curious thing - there ARE drivers included with RT11
> for the DEUNA, DEQNA and the Pro series Ethernet NI.  What was the point of
> those?  Did DEC think people would write their own networking software?

On RT-11?  I would assume yes.  The customer base for that OS is people who need a very light weight very fast OS, and for whom tailoring stuff or writing drivers or other custom software was all in a normal day's work.

https://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/102673057

Some networking applications were pretty strange.  There's a famous report (I have a paper copy) describing the use of a DEUNA -- specifically, the TDR feature -- in nuclear bomb testing.  The idea is to use it to observe the rapid shortening of an Ethernet coax hanging down the test pit shaft.  And while the document doesn't mention the OS used, this is the sort of high speed real time stuff RT-11 was ideal for.

	paul