marco@andromeda.UUCP (02/20/87)
About two weeks ago I asked for ideas about what to do with
some old PDP 11/23's I have hanging around. I started to answer each
peice of mail, but would you believe that I got >25 responses ? (I
stopped counting at 25). So if I didn't answer, rest assured I read
yours...
The suggestions I recieved boiled down to 3 basic categories :
A. Use them as controllers, etc. Run a real-time operating
system on them and drive lab data gathering equipment.
Well, good idea, but I don't have a project to use them
on... So someone suggested making one listen to the national time/date
radio broadcasts && thus getting accurate time reports. Problem is the
code to do this turns out to be proprietary. The most interesting idea I
got along these lines is to run the DECUS Forth on them, but since I don't
have a project this would really be just an excuse to have fun hacking. (hard
to get by management...)
B. Run BSD 2.9 or similar early UNIX on them. I even had offers to
help me find / supply software. Use them for file/print/net servers.
Again, lots of fun but hard to justify. For what it would
cost me in power, maintenance, and administration time, I could run
3B2's much more efficiently, and run more modern software. Remember,
these things need special power supply, AC, and the occasional service
call.
C. "Sell/Donate/Just_Plain_Give it to me"
Sorry, but they're not *my* PDP's , I just work here. so
I can't really dispose of them that way, much as I'd like them to go to
a good home instead of salvage. But I will include the option in my
report, so for all you dinosaur collectors who want mine, maybe there's
still hope. :-)
Many thanks to all who responded,
W.rat