Talk:PDP-11/74

https://retrocomputingforum.com/t/the-multi-cpu-pdp-11-74-mp/832

Probably the most famous PDP-11 that never was. Designed as a 4-way multiprocessor with four 11/70 processors clustered around shared memory. Configuration was SMP. Furthermore, the processors, which had been originally designed as FORTRAN crunchers, were to be equipped with the Commercial Instruction Set (CIS) for COBOL applications. Prototypes were built and a number of alpha units installed, but the product never came to market. Reasons for it never being shipped are various and may be apocryphal: the backplane would have been so complex to be almost un-manufacturable; the cost due to the complex backplane would have been too high; the 11/74 with CIS would have blown the new VAX-11/780 out of the water in commercial applications. Those that truly know are not talking :slight_smile:

And further:

"DEC kept running them internally, and as far as I know, the last one was shut down in 2001 or so.

"I have a simulated one running. That is Mim.Update.UU.SE. Just telnet to it, and log in.

"CASTOR and POLLUX were the same system. CASTOR was for when the system was running as a quad. Sometimes they would split the system into 2 duals and the second system would be POLLUX."

So, apparently RSX-11M-PLUS V4.6 can be partitioned...

There is a Web server on an emulated E11:

"This web server was written by Johnny Billquist, and it runs on an emulated PDP-11/74 (under E11). The web server is written in BASIC+2 V2.7, and it uses the TCP/IP stack also written by Johnny Billquist. There is a second web page here as well.

"The TCP/IP stack itself is written in MACRO-11, and libraries exist for writing software in both MACRO-11, PDP-11 C, FORTRAN 77, BASIC+2 and other languages on the PDP-11. The TCP/IP stack itself appears as a number of devices in RSX, and access to TCP can also be done though the normal command line tools available in RSX."