[rescue] MAXC a Dorado?!?!?

[Lionel Peterson]

>From: Bill Bradford <mrbill at mrbill.net>
>Date: 2008/02/27 Wed AM 10:11:59 CST
>To: The Rescue List <rescue at sunhelp.org>
>Subject: Re: [rescue] MAXC a Dorado?!?!?

>On Wed, Feb 27, 2008 at 10:56:51AM -0500, Mark KAHRS wrote:
>> Ummmm, no way.  MAXC was a special purpose microcoded machine designed by
>> the usual suspects --- Thacker and Lampson to emulate a PDP-10.  Ed Fiala
>> did the microcode.  Xerox refused to buy a PDP-10 and they got one anyway.
>> The Nova was probably the interface machine at the time of that net
>> listing.
>> There is a paper that describes MAXC somewhere.  But this doesn't have
>> anything to do with rescuing machines.
>
>Doesn't have to be strictly about "rescue" - pretty much "old systems"
>discussion is fine here.  FYI.  Discussion about historical facts and
>PDP-10-era boxes is perfectly fine.
>
>I still want a tiny PDP-11 of my own nowdays.

Well, I had a small PDP-11 machine (a DEC Pro-350) that was nice, but it was built as a GUI desktop, and as such it pales by comparison with anything as recent as an 80386-based system. Any geek points it was worth were quickly lost when it wouldn't boot and/or made a terrific racket when it started up...

I'd like a small machine with toggle switches and LED displays (either seven segment or discrete LEDs, a la PCs of the '70s), even an 1802-based system, as long as it also had a serial interface with some sort of useful monitor/assembler... I suppose I could make something from a microcontroller, but I'd rather have a classic CPU (6502, 8080, Z80 or even a PDP-11). The Apple I replica is nice (I have one, but I never put it in a case - I really should, it was a lot of soldering! ;^) but I want to futz with toggles...

Lionel