vintage RL02 running XXDP exerciser

Vintage RL02 disk drive (removable 14" disk 10 MB) running XXDP performance exerciser on vintage DEC PDP11/44 computer. After changing the heads and doing the alignment procedure the drive gets a 1 hour test before it is put back to the spares-pile.

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• computer
• dec
• pdp11
• rl02
• vintage

[Messerschmitt262a2a]

can you show startup and shutdown?

[Manitux1]

@Messerschmitt262a2a

Maybe. Actually I dont know of any assembled system but when I can find some spare time I will set up some equipment to show more of this.

[Bytefield]

That's a blast from the past, thanks. I used similar 14" Plessey drives in my first programming job.

These drives would sometimes take 5-10 minutes to perform a disk sort. The girls in the office could tell within a second or so when a sort was about to complete--when they heard the change in disk seek patterns for the final merge they would walk over and sit down at the terminal, didn't need the hear the beep indicating it was done.

[stevebasset]

Hell. That is mad. What size would that be? 5Mb? I remember in the mid 80's thinking a 40mb RLL Tandon drive was more than I would ever need.

[RockerRhys6666]

Oh for imbedded servo................Delight

[badvidsfromgermany]

I admit I have never heard of a 14 inch drive.

[popmomcorn]

i nere herd of 14 inch... i reashershed it and still nothing u r lucky to have one

[Stadinsuomipoika693]

So.. A 14-inch drive.. pretty big. And noisy.

[jalland]

Holy crap! What a nice machine.