All, I've recently scratched a curiosity itch on what it would take to build a multi-port Twin-Ax to WiFi bridge. The electrical interface is easy enough and ESP32s are cheap. So I built a bridge PCB-to-FPGA adapter and connected my System/36 (5362), an InfoWindow II (address 0 and 1), and my board during IPL and sign-on to see what I could sniff. The result is here:
https://www.retrotronics.org/tmp/s36_ipl_twinax_decode_30nov19.zip I get occasional decode errors called out with 'BAD FRAME'. The [SPF] next to bytes mean bad start bit (0), parity error, or non-zero fill bytes respectively. And I occasionally get a sync pattern followed by either illegal Manchester transitions or return to idle without any bytes (and thus no address) - the zero frames in the log. My main question is I need help on the next step. For a brief moment, I was under the impression SNA LU6 or LU7 ran on top of the Twin-Ax line layer. But that doesn't appear to be the case. I'm not sure it's direct 5250 either. Can anyone familiar with IBM-Midrange-World take a look at the decode and point me to the next protocol layer up the stack? Even the slightest breadcrumbs would be appreciated as I know very little about the Midrange world. Additionally if anyone is familiar with the wire-level and could assist on some of the framing errors, that would help as well. The twin-ax cables are less than 2m each so the line should be 100% clean. The problems are likely something I am doing wrong in the interpreter. Thanks, -Alan Hightower
