Able Computer

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Able Computer was a company based in Irvine, California which made a variety of device controllers and similar devices (e.g. caches) for PDP-11s and other machines which used the UNIBUS or QBUS.

The controllers were usually program-compatible to existing DEC products, but more cost-effective; the other boards offered performance and capability enhancemens that DEC themselves did not offer.

The following table gives the part numbers and sizes of Able product, to aid in identification of unknown boards:

Product Part Number Size Bus or Machine
DH/DM 10100 hex UNIBUS
VMZ/32 10185 hex UNIBUS
REBUS 10014 double dual UNIBUS
Dual I/O 10039 quad UNIBUS
INTERLINK 10064 hex* UNIBUS
BUSLINK 10062 quad QBUS
DMAX/16 10048 double hex UNIBUS
CACHE/434-440 10031 double dual PDP-11/34, PDP-11/40
SCAT/45 10017 (control)
10025 (data)
hex (control), hex (data) PDP-11/45, etc
QUADRASYNC/E 10028 hex* UNIBUS
QUADRACALL 10045 quad UNIBUS
DZ/16 10090 hex UNIBUS
VaxDZ 10140 hex UNIBUS
UNIMAP 10143 quad* QBUS (UNIBUS input)
QUADRASYNC/B-C 10015 (-B)
10022 (-C)
quad UNIBUS
DV/16   hex UNIBUS
CACHE/45   quad + double dual PDP-11/45, etc
QNIVERTER   quad QBUS (UNIBUS input)
ENABLE   hex* (main board), quad (optional cache) MUD (UNIBUS input)
Q/DH   quad QBUS
QNIMAP   double dual QBUS

* indicates a non-rectangular board

The notation "PDP-11/45, etc" means it also applies to the -11/50 and -11/55 (machines which are physically identical to the -11/45, with different main memory configurations).

In some documentation, the INTERLINK was also named the 'Interlink/UNI', and the BUSLINK the 'BUSLINK/LSI' .