#Help on SLU
5 messages in this thread
Hi, people. Got a question or two, this place looked like the most likely
place for an answer. First (and probably stupidest!), is there a way to
plug PDP-11/20 cards (UNIBUS) into an LSI-11 system, and vice versa? I
recently got hold of an 11/20 and am having a whole lot of fun trying to
get it running, but I need some help on UNIBUS theory
Second, and more specific, I have something that claims to be a M7856
SLU/RTC OPTION card, and I need to get some specs on it. It has 5 banks of
switches, and I'm a little confused :). I've figured out that it's a
serial card of some sort, and has a real-time clock option, but that's
about it. Is this something I can plug in and use as a console on the 11/20
or what? I don't even know whether it's RS232 or current loop, and what the
pinouts are. HELP!
Thanks a lot.
Dann L.
UNIBUS cards are not directly compatible with LSI-11 systems, which use a
Q-bus. You can buy third-party bus-adapters, but they're relatively
obscure and hard to find these days.
The M7856 is also known as a DL11-W. It consists of a standard DL11 serial
interface (RS232 I think) and a real-time clock. It's a UNIBUS device. I
don't have much other info handy, though.
-Bill
Thanks, Bill. Appreciate the info. DL11-W, hmmmm? I think I saw that
somewhere recently, in that pile of stuff I've accumulated. Anyway, I was
under the (apparently, totally mistaken!) impression that the Qbus was a
subset of the UNIBUS, which is what prompted the questions. Is there a
spec on the UNIBUS readily available? Really should have it, I think.
Thanks, again.
Dann L.
A spec on the UNIBUS exists, but I don't think it's in anything that's
currently published. There used to be something called (approx.) the
UNIBUS Interfacing Handbook which contained chapter and verse about that
bus, but it's been out of print for quite some time now.
-Bill
Hmmmm… Will have to start digging then. Thanks a lot, Bill, appreciate
the info.
Dann L.