Distracted by the Unibus #pdp11
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3 posts3 participants0 posts today
I had forgotten I still had this!
There are familiar names on this paper.
#RetroComputing Meetup @cbase
Freitag, 04.04. ab 19 Uhr
in der c-base, Rungestraße 20, 10179 Berlin
Offener #VintageComputing Stammtisch
Bei einem Getränk reden wir über Themen von #Zuse bis #Amiga, egal ob #Atari, #Commodore, #Apple oder #PDP8-#PDP11 - Hauptsache alte Rechner
Reviving the Past: The Legacy of the First C Compiler and Its Modern Implications
The unveiling of the earliest versions of the first C compiler sparks nostalgia and curiosity among developers. As we explore this historical artifact, we also consider the implications of legacy soft...
MUDs and the ability to reload new server without dropping connections (a “hotboot”)…
https://boston.conman.org/2025/02/11.2
…reminded me of an old RSX-11M application from an aeon ago, running part of a state government.
The app was too big for the PDP-11 (a common problem, as 32KW wasn't all that much even then), so the app removed the operating system from the computer, and ran, well, standalone.
Yes, you could do that back then.
That all worked swimmingly until somebody pressed ^C control-C on their terminal session, and the terminal driver then trapped into, well, nothingness.
Since the app code was too big for the PDP-11 it was running on, that smaller PDP-11 was shut down, the bigger local PDP-11 was switched over and re-booted and the app code loaded, and the bigger PDP-11 was then powered down.
The operator then pulled the core memory out of the bigger PDP-11, walked it over to the smaller PDP-11 and plugged it into the backplane, toggled in the address of the app's main loop onto the front panel switches, and toggled “go”, and off the smaller PDP-11 went running its too-big app.
Yeah, you could do a simple form of app checkpoint-restart with core memory, given core was persistent. And yeah, a bigger PDP-11 would have been helpful.
(Yes, SC was a creative administrator of those PDP-11 boxes. Swapping core never would have occurred to me.)
The Boston DiariesI never got the memo on “copyover servers” - The Boston Diaries - Captain NapalmI never got the memo on “copyover servers”
