XBOX 360 2572

On Thu, 05 Jan 06 12:51:54 GMT in alt.folklore.computers,

All PDP-11s I saw came with diagnostics on gray non-oiled paper tape. FEs brought diagnostics in on DECtape or disk packs if the system had drives with removable media.

Some PDP-11s were ordered without boot ROMs, so you had to toggle in a bootstrap to load the system. The bootstrap machine code was on the PDP-11 Programming Card. We had races to see who was fastest toggling in a working bootstrap. It obviously helped to have the code and the optimal finger movements memorized. Three flicks of the middle three fingers of both hands set the 16 bit value on the toggles, a press of the deposit toggle loaded the value into the current address, two presses of the examine toggle displayed the value at the current then the next address, and a sweep of both hands reset all the toggles. Took about a second per word, maybe 15-30 seconds for the whole boot sequence, can't remember the size or find the card right now. Used to take quite a while to read in the standalone Basic-11 system (6-8" dia. paper tape roll) from the TTY PTR into core. Didn't have to do that too often as core contents were usually okay after power bumps.

-- Thanks. Take care, Brian Inglis Calgary, Alberta, Canada

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