Having successfully compiled up the TU58 emulator (see my earlier post) and booted it into XXDP on my PDP11/23+, the next step is to build up a RT11 tape.
After a read through of Will Kranz’s article I decided to opt for an oversized tape image (10MB) using Will’s modified TU58 (dd.sys) driver. The standard TU58 is only 256KB is size and this larger capacity should give plenty of space for applications.
As part of my mission to build a general purpose storage server to allow diskless PDP’s to once again run real software, I have initially been concentrating on compiling up a TU58 emulator.
The TU58 is an ideal first device to emulate as its only requirement of the PDP-11 is a spare serial port which the vast majority of machines should be able to offer.
I have built up a development server for the storage server using hardware I found lying around the office. Here is the specification:
This should be a good basis for the machine, the multiple serial ports allowing me to emulate TU58s, run vtserver whilst also operating a console and the parallel port will run the RX01 emulator.
Onto the machine I have installed a minimal installation of Centos 4.5 and then added in via yum a gcc compiler and minicom terminal software.
For many years I’ve been pondering the problem of how to provide a reliable long term storage solution for my PDP-11 and PDP-8 machines. Whilst I have plenty of period drives which are still operational it is apparent that in the long term it is unlikely to be possible to keep them all running.
