Papertape diagnostics XBOX 360

Actually, the PDP-11 bootstraps (different for different devices) were typically about 5-10 words of 16 bits. And the most used ones were on a bootstrap ROM card plugged into the UNIBUS. (Resistor matrix IIRC).

My employer was a systems integration house. We bought minimal systems from DECs OEM channel and added 3rd party memory, tape drives and disk drives. Sometimes we also added our own interfaces to data logging and process control gear.

Since we didn't buy DEC disk drives, we got all diagnostics on paper tape, although the only thing we did with them was to read them onto an RX01 floppy or RK05 disk pack.

At some point the field engineer told us he had been instructed not to let customers copy his MAINDEC RK05 pack. But he was kind enough to let us know when he took a coffee break and to tell us that we could borrow the machine back for those 15 minutes.

We had an interesting relationship with the local DEC branch office. On one hand we were a very good customer. On the other hand, we often competed with the branch's enduser sales group. We tended to win all the sales to the university, because - with copycat drives and memory we could be cheaper - we were willing to sign the governments contract form while DEC insisted that all sales must use DECs contract language