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Nice! Great to see an example for this since I'm only first digging into the PDP-11. I had to pull open the handbook to see what was going on - particularly with the three words being used for a move. Was using the PC register for the values just for fun/demo, or does it have some sort of secret reasoning behind it for things outside the scope of this demo? Otherwise it seems like you could simplify it by using any of the general purpose registers instead of the PC register (R0 in this case), and then checking the register value. 012700 000001 062700 000001 000000

Looks like a HP 700/96 terminal. Would be fun to see it talking Block Mode to an HP3000 (or simulation) running a V/Plus app.

I never used a PDP-11, however, RT11 reminded me quite a bit of VMS on the VAX which was definitely interesting. I've forgotten much of the the very small amount I once knew. KED also reminded me of EDT. I had a hard time wrapping my head around those PFn keys. Probably the main reason I prefer *nix machines, vi was easier to learn.

The reason that the address for your second byte of your first MOV instruction "jumped" to address 1002 is that on the PDP11, all instructions/data (the value 1 of the first instruction in this case) must start on a word boundary (even address). An attempt to reference an instruction/data at an odd address on a PDP11 causes a Boundary error. The third byte (register selector) of the your first MOV instruction similarly starts at even address 1004. The deposit function helps you avoid boundary errors. The IBM/360 like the PDP11 had strict word boundary requirements. These were relaxed for the IBM/370 at the cost of reduced performance. x86 machines also have optional alignment assembler directives to maximise performance. DEC joined the optional alignment club with the VAX architecture.

In 1985 an entire campus used a PDP-11/44 as a time share system. As student administrative support for the system, we had RA80 for disks as well. Learned so much 'basic' computing on that system, if memory serves we had RSTS/E 9 OS on it. By 1985 it was ancient of course. Now most 'programmers' are little more then graphic artists compared to back then, when you actually had to know the limits of the hardware in detail to write solid software. And A.I. in its various forms will hide even more details, so that we will have a generation of system analysts that actually think they are true programmers. But such is live.

Thanks!

Great memories and horror stories!

That's one fancy help screen 🧐

I remember writing application software (in insurance agents) back in 1983 . Pip on RSTS-E with Compile Basic. But I prefer the IBM Series/1 from a developer viewpoint with the massive CAP.

Try 1000: 5000 1002: 5230 1004: 1175 1006: 775 The best four words of PDP-11 code ever, the solution to everything you ever wanted See if you can work it out

I sav ADVENT in the listing - he has the Collossal Cave (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colossal_Cave_Adventure)

i bet back then early dos when it was before everything was automatic command and execution vs 70's is like manual command and manually doing things in hard way that take more time from user vs today is very fast to do it cause Microsoft dos made it possible by help of bios that gave life to computers in the homes by making devices smaller ...unix also help their camp to produces extraordinary clones like macos x and linux based distros

i want a wild berry retro computer

I built my PiDP-11 last weekend. Been playing with 2.11 BSD on it, the older unix systems make me realize how convenient some of the modern things are like auto-complete of paths by hitting tab, etc. I am using retro-cool-term to give me a more authentic vintage feel to using it and writing some 'C' programs on it.

Interesting how some commands and conventions are still used in Windows’s CMD.

This is exactly what i needed !!

Used PDP 11's at Harwell when they first became available. They were powerful stuff in the day. Amazing how easy it is to slip back into Octal after 50 years :)

I spent a lot of time on an 11/70 yikes lol...

is yes shock that a lot of it is familiar to my VAX experience in college.

I never got to use a PDP11, it was before my time. But it's no shock that a lot of it is familiar to my VAX experience in college.

and wtf is a pdp ?

Why the spelling of F3B\B3\EB for February, if I may ask? Is it a challenge for the PDP to process string literals?

Wow you actually have one of the HP terminals that emulate DEC VT100! I’ve never seen one in the wild. HP made the best terminals…. I loved the crisp text.

Do you not play anything?

In the end, those "triangular" tabs can not be crimped properly with that tool, in my opinion. The triangular tabs can be closed properly with a tool having a round die.

You have to replace HP terminal with vt220 from digital. This should fix all the issues. :)

This was very interesting to watch. I never had a chance to even see a PDP-11, so I didn't really have any experience. Thanks for the good video and keep up the good work :)

0:53 so, the operating system here is gnu?

7:29 Network trouble?

5:58 I seem to vaguely recall that .LST is the default extension for the TYPE command.

4:37 The deletion feedback behaviour depends on whether you tell the terminal driver it’s a “scope” terminal or not. If it is, it can backspace and print a space on top of the wrong character to erase it. But if it prints on paper, then it has to do what you are seeing here, printing out the deleted characters in reverse, with the “\” to bracket the deletion echo sequence.

Only mad people here, what are they running on it, why they all cry ?

Thanks - I like the idea of using the male pin as a gauge/support for the female pins.

Unix...🙃🙃🙃

Denis Richi?🙃🙃🙃

I still have my MPE IV operator's "pocket" guide.

Thanks for the tour. I used 11/45s for graphics research MASc and then VAX 11/780,785 all running various versions of UNIX. I programmed a PDP-8 as a high school student. So much fun. Why is there so many confusing (for me) mappings between the HP keyboard and what the RSX expects? Is that at VT52 or VT100 emulation issue? Thanks for the video

Isn't it related to VMS

I grew up among soviet pdp11 clones. I remember SYSMAC.SML and RADIX code ) Excellent CPU, RAM and storage. Far better than PC!

I built custom laboratory test systems in the 1980s. I worked with DEC PDP-11/23 RT-11 OS. I designed several Q-BUS interfaces and wrote RT-11 MACRO-11 device drivers to FORTRAN and BASIC, Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) made so many contributions that nobody remembers today.

What are these links to? Looks like high tech stuff? !

I was system manager for an 11/34 and two 11/44s from ‘79 to ‘88 running RSX11. The accounting people had monitors hung on it that just passed data through to their 11/70. I ran Fortran programs doing real time process control of a natural gas production, compression, processing, transmission and delivery system covering about 5,000 sq miles in south Texas. Those were the days!

No Pdp booted that fast ever lol

I used RT11 back in summer 1985. There were PDP-11 models 10, 23, and 34 all running it. I remember the 6.3 filename system and the RK0 etc. volume names. They used 8 inch floppy drives. I still have the book "Working With RT-11" by Beaumont, Summerfield, and Wright, digital DECbooks, 1983. They had BASIC and FORTRAN IV. C was installed for experimentation but I'd never used C before at that time and couldn't get it to work and was never sure if it was my problem or if the admin hadn't installed C correctly. Edit: I remember the first time I learned the hard way that quirk you mentioned where you had to hit the Enter on the numeric keypad. I kept on and on and the admin's wife came in and helped me and said, "THIS enter key!"

In the museum of computer i boot a real one you have to put a paper tape press some buttons then it will boot up

You find backslash confusing? Great to know I’m not the only one here!😂

Nice. The IWISS SN-025 is very similar to the SN-28B but does a nicer job with the triangular tabs that wrap around the insulation.

Curious, who was the primary customer for DEC for PDP-11s and what was the common software that was run? Like was it only science and universities or did businesses also buy them for billing or inventory etc?

We built a lot of scientific data acquisition and control systems with RT-11 back in the day, primarily on LSI-11's. Fun to see again.

Had to laugh when I saw ADVENT.* and DUNGEO.* in SY: -- My public school system had a PDP-11 named "ArTooDeeToo" for students to practice programming on. Schools had 300 baud acoustic couplers and mini teletypes that could be checked out and taken home with you, but it was the beginning of the home computer era, so some kids had their own equipment and just dialed in. People don't believe me when I say I was on chat in the early 80's, but I was. CBE (Citizens Band Emulator) on ArToo!