Path: csiph.com!weretis.net!feeder6.news.weretis.net!panix!.POSTED.panix5.panix.com!not-for-mail From: Rich Alderson Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,comp.os.linux.misc Subject: Re: COBOL and tricks Followup-To: alt.folklore.computers Date: 01 Aug 2022 16:07:40 -0400 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and UNIX, NYC Lines: 42 Sender: alderson+news@panix5.panix.com Message-ID: References: <337089555.680728311.711454.peter_flass-yahoo.com@news.eternal-september.org> <345338960.680825886.860453.peter_flass-yahoo.com@news.eternal-september.org> <3sydnWzlja2l2nr_nZ2dnUU7-dHNnZ2d@earthlink.com> Injection-Info: reader2.panix.com; posting-host="panix5.panix.com:166.84.1.5"; logging-data="25866"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@panix.com" X-Newsreader: Gnus v5.7/Emacs 22.3 Xref: csiph.com alt.folklore.computers:221612 comp.os.linux.misc:35360 scott@slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal) writes: > Lew Pitcher writes: >> On Mon, 01 Aug 2022 09:45:53 -0500, D.J. wrote: >>> I've never seen an 8" floppy drive anywhere. >> They are rarer than hen's teeth, these days. >> My first encounter with an 8" floppy disk drive was in loading >> the microcode into a S/370-30 mainframe. Later, when I acquired >> my first home computer (a Cromemco Z2) I loaded CP/M from 8" >> disks on my dual-drive Persci voice-coil floppy disk drive. > It may be that Al has one at the CHM. I've seen references on the > PDP-11 groups to folks using 8" floppies on working PDP-11's. The RX01 and RX02 8" floppy drives were used on PDP-11 and PDP-8 systems to my certain knowledge, and likely on some PDP-15s but that's speculation on my part. The DEC-20 (PDP-10 system built on the KL-10 processor) was a special case: The boot processor (referred to as the "front end") was a PDP-11/40 with either a pair of DECtape drives or a pair of RX01 floppies. They were used to boot either the diagnostic monitor KLDCP or the OS RSX-20F (based on RSX-11D with some -11M mods) if the RP06 boot drive was unavailable (e.g., if the OSes for the 11/40 and the KL-10 had not yet been installed there). The VAX-11/780 also required an RX01 to load microcode and boot. > Some of the Bx9xx series Burroughs mainframes had 8" floppies (e.g. B2900) > and others used 5 1/4" (B4900) to load microcode and the initial boot loader. Yup. Same deal. Did the Burroughs systems always require the floppies (like the VAX), or were they an adjunct not usually in use (like the KL-10 systems)? -- Rich Alderson news@alderson.users.panix.com Audendum est, et veritas investiganda; quam etiamsi non assequamur, omnino tamen proprius, quam nunc sumus, ad eam perveniemus. --Galen