RT11 sysgen and disk partitions

[Megan]

>Megan, if you are reading this, might it be possible to expand the number
>of units to 128 or even 256?  I seem to see at least one bit that is not
>being used and maybe even two bits.

Depends... where are you talking about getting the two bits?

>I know that naming would be a problem - what about:
>
>D00  ->  D77:
>for the 128 unit device drivers, then add 8 more
>"hex" values to the last RAD50 character
>D08:  ->  D0F:
>...
>D78:  ->  D7F:
>for the 256 unit device drivers, then add 16 more
>values to the last RAD50 character
>D0G:  ->  D0V:
>...
>D7G:  ->  D7V:

uggh... I'd not want to see go this route.

>Since all the device names are RAD50, numbering is not really a problem.  
>By keeping the middle character as an octal value, the PNAME2 table
>should still be happy.

You've got me on that, I would have to look at the code to see why
PNAME2 is an issue.

As for the number of disks... I find 64 unwieldy... I'd hate to have
to worry about 2 or 4 times that number on RT.  I personally would
rather see RT be able to natively handle 32-bit blocks numbers before
it went this route...

                                        Megan Gentry
                                        Former RT-11 Developer

+--------------------------------+-------------------------------------+
| Megan Gentry, EMT/B, PP-ASEL,ST| email: mbg at world.std.com         |
| Member of Technical Staff      |        megan at savaje.com          |
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