Donated on 5/25/22 by the family of Spider Boardman.
To the Restoration Blog for this PDP-11/35.
The PDP-11/35 and the PDP-11/40 are 16-bit processors that share the same backplane and boards. The PDP-11/35 has a smaller 20-slot 10.5" chassis and the PDP-11/40 has a larger 36-slot 21" chassis. These processors have 16-bit registers and memory, and can directly address a 28 kW of memory. With the optional KT11-D Memory Management Unit installed it can address 124kW of memory. The upper 4kW of address space is reserved for Unibus I/O devices.
This system has almost all of the processor options installed. The KE11-E Extended Instruction Set option adds instructions for fixed-point multiplication, division, and shifting, and can handle double-precision 32-bit data. The KE11-F Floating Point Instruction Set option adds instructions for addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division of floating-point data. The KT11-D Memory Management Unit increases the address space from 32kW to 128kW. The MMU also adds the ability for the processor to run in Kernel or User modes, and support for multi-user operating systems. When in the User mode the processor cannot access the peripherals and cannot execute certain instructions. This prevents a program running in User mode from crashing the operating system. The KJ11-A Stack Limit option is normally installed with the MMU option. It limits the depth of the stack address, and will stop program execution with a processor trap.
The system looks like it was assembled from available parts. The Unibus chassis is a BA11-KA, which the DEC documentation says is an empty chassis without a power supply. This style chassis was used for the much later design PDP-11/34 systems. It will be a challenge to mount the 11/40 front panel to the BA11 chassis. The RICM has a nearly empty PDP-11/35 chassis, so it might be easiest to use the boards and backplanes from this system and the the other PDP-11/35 chassis.
The right cabinet contain the PDP-11/35 processor chassis and a VR14 XY display S/N RK03507, the same model that is used in a PDP-12. There is a RX02 dual 8" diskette subsystem and nothing else in the left cabinet. There is plenty of room in the processor cabinet, so we could move the RX02 diskette subsystem and then only have a single cabinet system.
We received a DEC LK11 button box with this system, but didn't know what it was. Al Kossow @ CHM told us that it connects to the M7060 LK10 VT48 push button control board that is in the system. This button box was also used with a VS60 graphics terminal. We might be able to modify the Lunar Lander and SpaceWar! games so that they can be controlled by the LK11 button box.
We should be able to run the RT11 operating system from diskette using the RX02 diskette drives that are connected to the RX211 diskette controller. That would provide enough storage to run some games. We could also add an RL02 10 MB disk drive to the system.
The complete system is similar to a DEC GT44 Graphic Display System. To make a complete GT44 we would need to add two RK05 disk drives. We will probably add two RL02 disk drives that each have 5x the capacity of an RK05 disk drive.
The chassis slots are numbered from right to left. The 9-slot KD11 backplane is installed at the right. A generic 9-slot Unibus backplane is installed in the middle. A special 4-slot VT11 backplane is installed at the left. An M981 Unibus Jumper connects the right and middle backplanes, and a more modern M9202 Unibus Jumper connects the middle and left backplanes. A M9312 Bootstrap/Terminator board is installed at the end of the Unibus in the VT11 backplane.
The ribbon cables from the front panel are disconnected to get a better view of the boards.
The installed boards are:
M7239 KE11-F FIS Option
M7238 KE11-E EIS Option
M7232 KD11-A U Word
M7237 KJ11-A Stack Limit
M787 Kw11-l Line Time Clock
M7231 KD11-A Data Path
M7233 KD11-A IR Decode
M7235 KD11-A Status
M7234 KD11-A Timing
M7236 KT11-D Memory Management Option
M981 Unibus Jumper
M7800 DL11 Asynchronous Line Interface Board
M981 Unibus Jumper
M7228 KW11-P Programmable real-time clock
M7891-DC MS11-LD 128kW X 18 bits (256KB) MOS Memory
M7800 DL11 Asynchronous Line Interface Board
M7060 LK10 VT48 push button control for the LK11 Button Box
M7860 DR11-C M786+M105+M7821; general device interface
M8256 RX211 RX02 floppy disk drive controller
M9202 Unibus Jumper
M8730 KW11-C Calendar and clock module
M9202 Unibus Jumper
M9312 Bootstrap/Terminator DY, RL02, and ASR33/PC05 boot ROMs
M7014 VT11 Unibus Controller and Bootstrap for VT40
A320 VT11 Vector and Character generators, and D-A convertors
M7013 VT11 Vector Generator and Character Generator Control for VT40
The BA11-KA Chassis
The LK11 Button Box