PDP-10 I/O Bus

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KI10/KL10 I/O bus terminator

The PDP-10 I/O Bus, the PDP-10 bus to which device controllers could be attached, was provided on the KA10 and KI10 models. It allowed peripherals to interrupt the CPU, and supported programmed I/O (including block transfers); speeds of up to 200K transfers/second were possible on the KA10, and 350K transfers/second on the KIl0.

On the KL10, an optional DIA20 In/Out Bus Controller could be attached, to provide a KA10/KI10 compatible I/O bus.

The DT01C I/O Bus Switch allowed a device to be switched between two different CPUs.

Physical form

On the KA10, all the busses were physically instantiated as cables with a pair of dual width PCBs at each end, which plugged into slots in a standard DEC backplane; these later became the CJ connectors.

On the KI10 and KL10, the I/O bus cables ended in a large QuickLatch connector; these connectors were on the CPU end of I/O bus cables of those machines.

See also

External links

  • EK-108OU-PD-002, "KL10-Based Physical Description" - has images of CJ dual card connectors and QuickLatch connectors, pp. 69-70