The ECN No Name Newsletter is no longer being published. This is an archived issue.
[previous article] [next article]The Engineering Computer Network was originally constructed using PDP-11 series hardware manufactured by the Digital Equipment Corporation. As demand for computing resources grew, the ECN staff added support for DEC Vax and Gould PowerNode series computers. Due to the increasing age of our PDP-11 hardware and the limitations of their architecture, the ECN staff has found support for these machines to be more difficult each succeeding year. Over the last few years, we have tried to replace and/or upgrade the existing production PDP-11 systems where appropriate and to remove the old PDP-11 hardware from service. With the upgrade of the "PA" PDP-11/70 to a VAX-11/780, the final production PDP-11 will be removed from service. This will allow us to remove many of the limitations forced on the ECN software by the architectural restrictions of the PDP-11 and also to concentrate our efforts on providing better support for the VAX and Gould lines of computer equipment.
Although the use of PDP-11's at the ECN is now a memory to most users, they formed the basis for what the network has evolved into today. Their passing marks a milestone in the history of the ECN and writes the final chapter to a support effort that started almost a decade ago.
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