🚀 go-pugleaf

gp15@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu (Gerald Pulver) writes:


>I have just acquired a DEC model 350 IVIS "Professional".  I have yet to
>hook it up and power it up... and I really don't know what it is.  What 
>operating system will it run? What sort of CPU does it have?  (the 
>documentation I have is rather limited)


The Pro-300 was the engineering workstation of it's time.  There were
3 models: the 325, 350, and 380.  The 325 and 350 shared the LSI-11/23
cpu.  The difference between them was that the 325 was floppy based,
while the 350 had a hard disk (and possibly a bigger power supply?).
It can handle the RD51, RD52, and RD53 drives (10, 20, and 71MB,
respectively).  The 380 was based on the LSI-11/73 cpu.  Available
options include color monitors and ethernet.

Basically, the PRO-300 is a personal PDP-11, with computer and
terminal in a neat pc package.  It has an expansion bus, the CT-bus.
Unfortunately, it never really caught on, DEC marketing being what it
is, despite being a contemporary of the IBM-PC and being priced about
the same as the original IBM's.  A friend of mine ran some benchmarks
on his 350 , and determined it's about 1/3 to 1/2 as fast as a
microVAX-II for non-virtual-memory numerical applications.

For a while after they stopped trying to sell the PRO's to the masses,
DEC continued to use them as the central console system for the big
VAX Clusters in the 8000 series.  They also sold them to various OEM's
as process controllers and graphical front-ends for large control
systems.  It was a cheap way to get an 11/23 or 11/73, if your
expansion needs were limited and you only needed one (or perhaps two)
terminals. 

Operating systems: the worst thing DEC did to the PRO's was putting a
brain-dead menu-driven version of RSX-11M+ called P/OS (Professional
Operating System) on them.  Now, RSX-11M+ is a nice operating system,
as are the other PDP-11 operating systems.  But who wants to be
limited to a miserable, slow menu system on a nice little computer
like the PRO-350?  The only saving grace of P/OS is the PRO/Toolkit, a
development environment which includes a partial DCL command shell.
But you still boot up at the menu level, and it's only a limited
shell.  Fortunately, RT-11 quickly became available, as did a couple
of versions of PDP-11 unix.  The one I remember was VENIX, which I
think was put out by Venture Com. (hazy memory) It would be nice if
someone at Berkeley put their unix on the PRO...

As for P/OS (and a version of RT-11 which actually runs _under_ P/OS),
it's still available from DECUS, basically just for media charges.
They also have printed documentation.  Like DEC operating systems in
general, P/OS has excellent and voluminous documentation.  I have 8
3-inch 3-ring binders on my bookcase, plus various smaller documents.
Everything you ever wanted to know about the Professional 300
series...

DECUS also has a C compiler that runs under the PRO/Toolkit, as well
as a BASIC.  They don't have the PRO Fortran, possibly because it's
the same as the regular RSX Fortran (speculation).

Personal opinion: if DEC hadn't crippled the PRO with P/OS, but had
sold them as software development workstations for the PDP-11,
offering versions of all the PDP-11 operating systems (RSX-11M,
RSX-11M+, Ultrix, RT-11, RSTS/E, IAS), they could have sold lots of
them.  It's a great way to move your system hackers off the main
production machine without having to buy an expensive machine just for
the developers.  Unfortunately, Our Favorite Computer Company has
always been stronger at engineering than marketing.  sigh.
-- 
		-  Steve Mitchell	steve@cps.altadena.ca.us
					grian!steve@elroy.jpl.nasa.gov
					ames!elroy!grian!steve
"God is licht, an in him there is nae mirkness ava." -- 1 John 1:5