from:"Rod Smallwood"


Hi

   Well I have had a huge response to my request.

I am unsure as to if I have defined the problem properly.

So a few bullet points.

1. The objective is to copy RX50 disk images (*.dsk format) to genuine 
DEC RX50 disks.


2. The PC I want to use is a DEC Celeibris FX ie the PC and its W95 
software is as supplied by DEC.


3. It has an RX33 5.25 inch floppy drive.

4. The RX33 _*is*_ capable of  reading and writing RX50 disks.

5.  putR was supposed to be able to do this. It does not.

6.  All that is lacking is the right utility.

7. Doing this does not need any disks other than RX50's.

8. Linux in any of its myriad of forms is not the answer.

9. simH is good at what it does but of no use here

10.  Its just a W95 utility program to copy an RX50 disk image to an 
RX50 disk on an RX33 drive on a DEC PC.


11. So whats it called? Does it work  given the above situation?

Rod

Re: cctalk Digest, Vol 89, Issue 21




On 22/02/2022 23:16, Glen Slick via cctalk wrote:

On Tue, Feb 22, 2022 at 2:20 PM Rod Smallwood via cctalk
 wrote:

I'm sure that will work. Unfortunatly dd is a linux command.

I only have windows PC's.


You never answered if you have a SCSI controller in your PC, or have
the ability to add a SCSI controller to your PC. If you don't, the
whole discussion of using 'dd' or equivalent is moo.



simH is highly complex and needs a lot of setup. ( I know - I tried -
total nightmare)


If you think setting up and using SIMH is highly complex, wait until
you find out how complex setting up and using real PDP-11 hardware is.



It does not have support for the CMD CDD 220 SCSI controller and a RH-18A


Huh? SIMH emulates MSCP controllers and attached disks of arbitrary
size just fine.


PDP hardware setup ? Well I worked for digital between 1975 and 1985.

R

Re: Installing an operating system on the 11/83 - update.




On 22/02/2022 16:20, Rod Smallwood via cctalk wrote:

Hi All

  I did find some RX50 images of the MicroRSX distribution.

 So I fired up my DEC Celebris FX. It runs W95 and has a 3.5 inch 
floppy, a real RX33 5.25 inch drive and a CD-R.


   Its accessible on my network so getting files onto it is not a 
problem.


    So install putR.com , and transfer the image files.

    Huh! putR says the RX50 disk is write protected. Its not and the 
drive works normally with the disk from the MS DOS prompt.


     So much for putR writes RX50's on RX33!

    Rod


So to sum up I have yet to find a tried and tested way to write a RX50 
disk image to an RX50 disk on a W95 PC with a 5.25 inch drive.


Rod

Re: cctalk Digest, Vol 89, Issue 21


I'm sure that will work. Unfortunatly dd is a linux command.

I only have windows PC's.

simH is highly complex and needs a lot of setup. ( I know - I tried - 
total nightmare)


It does not have support for the CMD CDD 220 SCSI controller and a RH-18A

I have a working 11/83 with a 2gig SCSI drive and RX50.(it passes the 
diags and boots XXDP+)


None of the methods suggested so far gets me an RX50 bootable OS install 
set.


Latest fail.. putR does not as claimed write disk images to a real RX50 
under W95. (write protect error)


The SCSI25D costs  $150 US in the UK.

So the  simple requirement to copy an RX50 disk image (which I have) to 
an RX50 remains.


Rod





On 22/02/2022 19:27, Adam Thornton via cctalk wrote:

The 11/83 question sounds like a job for SCSI2SD to me.  Install a system
with simh.  dd the resulting disk image to your sd card.  Hook the SCSI2SD
up to your 11/83 and boot from the card.  Copy the contents of that drive
to your real SCSI drive.  Done.

SCSI2SD cards are not expensive and are a tremendous value for money.

Installing an operating system on the 11/83 - update.


Hi All

  I did find some RX50 images of the MicroRSX distribution.

 So I fired up my DEC Celebris FX. It runs W95 and has a 3.5 inch 
floppy, a real RX33 5.25 inch drive and a CD-R.


   Its accessible on my network so getting files onto it is not a problem.

    So install putR.com , and transfer the image files.

    Huh! putR says the RX50 disk is write protected. Its not and the 
drive works normally with the disk from the MS DOS prompt.


     So much for putR writes RX50's on RX33!

    Rod

Re: Installing an operating system on an 11/83




On 22/02/2022 00:32, Rod Smallwood via cctalk wrote:

Hi

  I have built an 11/83 in a BA23 box.

  It has a KDJ-11B, 2mB PMI memory, an RQDX3 with an RX50 attached,

Plus a CMD CQD 220A Disk controller with a digital RH18A 2Gig SCSI 
drive attached.


Diag sees drive as RA82.

It boots and runs the diag disk and XXDP+ just fine.

I do not have install distributions for any of the 11/83 operating 
systems.


Daily driver system is a Windows 10 PC.

So how do I install an operating system?

Suggestions please.

Thanks

Rod



I have been doing a lot of digging.

Its possible there was a MicroRSX on RX50

I'm looking for images.

Rod

Re: Installing an operating system on an 11/83





On 22/02/2022 00:55, Glen Slick via cctalk wrote:

On Mon, Feb 21, 2022, 4:32 PM Rod Smallwood via cctalk <
cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote:


Hi

I have built an 11/83 in a BA23 box.

It has a KDJ-11B, 2mB PMI memory, an RQDX3 with an RX50 attached,

Plus a CMD CQD 220A Disk controller with a digital RH18A 2Gig SCSI drive
attached.

Diag sees drive as RA82.

It boots and runs the diag disk and XXDP+ just fine.

I do not have install distributions for any of the 11/83 operating systems.

Daily driver system is a Windows 10 PC.

So how do I install an operating system?

Suggestions please.

Thanks

Rod


Is the PC old enough to still have PCI slots? If it is, one option would be
to pick up a cheap PCI SCSI controller, e.g. an AHA-2940, that you can use
to write disk images to a SCSI hard drive. Then use SIMH to create disk
images of an OS of interest that can then be dumped to the SCSI hard drive.
Or pick up a SCSI2SD device to use with the CMD CQD-220A instead of a SCSI
disk drive. Then copy disk images created using SIMH on the PC to an SD
card.

Is the CQD-220A a /TM version, or an /E version? If it's a /TM version you
could also pick up a cheap SCSI tape drive, and create installation tapes
for RSTS/E or 2.11BSD and boot from those to install on a SCSI hard drive.
I've done that a few times just for the heck of installing from tape. If
you have the /E version (or /T/M version) instead of the /TM version you
can do either MSCP or TMSCP,  but not both at the same time.

For RT-11, that is small enough it wouldn't be difficult to install from
RX-50 disks, if you had a means to create disks from images.


Exactly, the best solution is an RX50 distribution.

I have never seen one or a way of making one.

If you have a PDP-11 with an RX50 then you would need one.

Rod

Re: Installing an operating system on an 11/83




On 22/02/2022 02:35, Chris Zach via cctalk wrote:

   It has a KDJ-11B, 2mB PMI memory, an RQDX3 with an RX50 attached,

Plus a CMD CQD 220A Disk controller with a digital RH18A 2Gig SCSI 
drive attached.


Hm, that's an interesting setup. If it has two MCSP controllers then 
one of them is at an alternate address. I never really worked out how 
to run a system with an RQDX3+Second controller to get the floppies 
working and the hard disk working so hm.


That said, one option is to find a friendly person, send them an RD54 
and have them copy a sysgen onto it. Another option is to get one of 
Dave G's MFM emulators, download an RD54 image of the OS in question, 
transfer it to the real disk then go. Or just plug Dave's emulator 
into the 11/83 and run with it.


Yeah, that's a simple option.

For myself I run a 600mb ESDI drive on an MTI controller that I built 
off an RL02 image which I uploaded via serial link to a real RL02. To 
keep me from doing this again I backed up my system to a TK70, and 
have the BRU boot floppy set up on an RX01. Simple restores are nice.


C



Yes that's right they are at different addresses as per the manual

Rod

Installing an operating system on an 11/83


Hi

  I have built an 11/83 in a BA23 box.

  It has a KDJ-11B, 2mB PMI memory, an RQDX3 with an RX50 attached,

Plus a CMD CQD 220A Disk controller with a digital RH18A 2Gig SCSI drive 
attached.


Diag sees drive as RA82.

It boots and runs the diag disk and XXDP+ just fine.

I do not have install distributions for any of the 11/83 operating systems.

Daily driver system is a Windows 10 PC.

So how do I install an operating system?

Suggestions please.

Thanks

Rod

Re: PDP-11/34 CPU PROMS

2022-02-09 Thread Rod Smallwood via cctalk

We have narrowed the problem down.

Its the instruction decode ROM's that are the issue.

The images of those are whats needed.

Regards Rod

On 09/02/2022 23:14, Sytse van Slooten via cctalk wrote:

On Tue, Feb 8, 2022 at 7:04 PM Warner Losh wrote:
I found
https://deramp.com/downloads/mfe_archive/011-Digital%20Equipment%20Corporation/08%20PDP-11/01%20PDP-1104-1134/05%20PDP-1104-1134%20Microcode/
which has the source code...

But I couldn't find the tools to use these files to create microcode
images.

Actually, the "m8266_ucode.v.txt" there seems to actually be the program that
produced the symbolic dump (which is also available at:

http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/pdp11/1134/m8266_ucode.out.txt)

It looks like the program is in VHDL or something like that, but it doesn't
seem to have the actual microcode (was it stored/defined in another VHDL
file?); that raises the question of where the actual microcode that it was
dumping was.

It's Verilog (the 'other' hardware language besides VHDL), and indeed the rom
images are in other files/modules - in some kind of straight binary format, I'd
guess.

I'm properly intrigued why someone would choose to do this - which seems to be
mostly listing the microcode in a readable format - in Verilog. Unless of
course it would be with a long term goal of using that microcode in an emulator
that is sufficiently like a 'real' 11/34 to run it unchanged. I wonder if that
is the case, and what became of the project - since the files are from 2014,
it's probably safe to assume it got stuck somewhere along the way.

Somewhere way down on my list of things to explore is something similar but
then for the 11/70 - to make a vhdl version that is microcode compatible with
the original, unlike the current pdp2011 that's 'only' functionally compatible.
And this is about exactly the same way I would start - except I don't have the
'70 rom images yet... If anyone has them and is willing to share, drop me a
note ;-)

Cheers
Sytse

Re: PDP-11/34 CPU PROMS

2022-02-09 Thread Rod Smallwood via cctalk

Hi

 Thank you all for your kind and quick replies.

I am sure somebody will come up with the actual images either the 
original files or derived from what we have.

As the key to the function of the 11/34 CPU their addition to the body 
of informatio they will be of imense benefit to us all.

Rod

On 09/02/2022 14:02, Noel Chiappa via cctalk wrote:

 >>> On Tue, Feb 8, 2022 at 6:18 PM Rod Smallwood wrote:

 >>> On the M8266 CPU control board a defective 7404 (E111) has killed a
 >>> bunch of the PROMs holding the microcode.

That's pretty astonishing; I've heard of PROMs dropping bits over time, but
I'm a bit amazed to hear of a failure in a TTL gate (the 74S04 is a hex
inverter; its gates are on pg. 7 of the M8266 prints - they produce uPC03-08)
taking out a bunch of other gates connected to it.

 >> On Tue, Feb 8, 2022 at 7:04 PM Warner Losh  wrote:

 >> I found
 >> 
https://deramp.com/downloads/mfe_archive/011-Digital%20Equipment%20Corporation/08%20PDP-11/01%20PDP-1104-1134/05%20PDP-1104-1134%20Microcode/
 >> which has the source code...
 >>
 >> But I couldn't find the tools to use these files to create microcode
 >> images.

Actually, the "m8266_ucode.v.txt" there seems to actually be the program that
produced the symbolic dump (which is also available at:

   http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/pdp11/1134/m8266_ucode.out.txt)

It looks like the program is in VHDL or something like that, but it doesn't
seem to have the actual microcode (was it stored/defined in another VHDL
file?); that raises the question of where the actual microcode that it was
dumping was.

It might be worth inquiring of Mike Douglas (he runs the DeRamp site) to find
out where the files in "mfe_archive" came from; perhaps the source has, or
knows of, the file which "m8266_ucode.out.txt" was a symbolic dump of - maybe
from a complete KD11-EA simulation in VHDL?

If that's not possible,it would be trivial to extract the PROM contents
(well, partial contents - see below) from the "m8266_ucode.out.txt" file;
each uword entry starts with the lines:

   * PDP-11/34a micro code word for MPC = 000 *
   (MSB is left, indented fields generated by expansion ROMs)
   micro word =  0111 1100  1100 1000 1010 0001   1110 

from ROM: E105 E103 E104 E100 E98  E97  E99  E106 E107 E108 E109 
E110

The address of each uword is the "MPC = xxx" line; the contents of the 12
PROMs, at that address, are given on the "micro word = " line (the
PROMs are 4 bits wide).

If someone explained what format they needed as input for burning new PROMs,
I could easily (like an hour) write a small portable program (using StdIO
only, so it could be compiled and run on _anything_) that read that file in,
and spat out the 12 PROM files. (Most of the dump could be ignored - all the
data that's needed is in that one line.)

BUT (and this is why it would be good to get back to the source of that file),
that's not a complete M8266 ucode PROM dump.

The KD11-EA has a uword address space 1 bit larger than the KD11-E - almost
certainly to support floating point instructions; the KD11-EA adds 'uPC 09'
(although looking its source at the top of pg. 7 of the prints, I don't quite
grok how it is generated - maybe it's fed back through J2 from the FP11-A when
one is plugged in). Anyway, uword addresses run up to 02000 in the KD11-EA,
and the last uword in that dump is 0777.

Interestingly, according to the flow charts of the 'basic' KD11-E/EA ucode in
the prints (indexed and annotated here:

   https://gunkies.org/wiki/KD11-E/EA_microcode

in full), they stop at 0757 - but the dump (in "m8266_ucode.out.txt")
contains uwords that are 'supposed' to be blank (per the flow charts),
as well as above 0757.

So that dump must have been prepared from a copy of the 'new' KD11-EA PROMs -
the ones including the floating point ucode. (Note that the FP11-A _also_
contains ucode, intended to control the stuff on the FP11-A; but the floating
point instructions _also_ use the KD11-A for some stuff - e.g. fetching
operands from main memory. Only the ucode address space is shared.)

 > From: Warner Losh

 > There's a small chance that the tools.tar.gz link on
 > http://www.ak6dn.com/PDP-11/M9312/ has these, but that's for a
 > different module so who knows.

Right, a _completely_ different card - a boot PROM, not a CPU; totally
un-related - and by a different person (Don North).

But just for completeness, I looked in "tools.tar.gz", and it's just
bootstrap PROM stuff.

Noel

PDP-11/34 CPU PROMS

2022-02-08 Thread Rod Smallwood via cctalk


Hi

 Jerry Walker and I have an 11/34 under restoration.

We have run into a bit of a problem.

On the M8266 CPU control board a defective 7404 (E111) has killed a 
bunch of the PROMs holding the microcode.


Does anybody have or can get images of the PROMs on this board so 
replacement devices an be programmed.


Rod

PDP-8 clone built by Canadian company Consolidated Computer Inc

2022-01-23 Thread Rod Smallwood via cctalk


I am trying to locate documentation on the PDP-8 clone built by Canadian 
company Consolidated Computer Inc (Mers Kutt) in the mid 1970's.
An example exists in the UK and will be restored when more data than just the 
system can be found.
Rod Smallwood - digital equipment corporation 1975-1985

Re: RK11-C indicator panel inlays?

2021-12-05 Thread Rod Smallwood via cctalk


Yes I have the blanks for these.

Let me see what artwork I have

Rod


On 05/12/2021 19:12, Noel Chiappa via cctalk wrote:

Let me get this out before the list gets shut down _again_...


There is discussion of doing a run of indicator panel inlays:

   http://ana-3.lcs.mit.edu/~jnc/tech/DECIndicatorPanels.html

for the RK11-C (which is wired for an indicator panel, although as far as
I know, DEC never did the inlay).

If you're interested... you will need a standard DEC indicator panel light
panel (with flat cables with plug-in-cards on the ends). (I don't have any
insight on how to get one of those. It shouldn't be _too_ hard to make
replicas, but I'll leave that topic for the moment.)

All I am proposing to do is create the silk-screened inlay that turns a DEC
indicator panel into an RK11-C indicator panel (starting with a functional
indicator penel without the inlay).


All DEC indicator panels use the same actual light panel and flat
cables/plug-in-cards (which have one conductor per light in the light panel);
which light comes on is set by the way the backplane slots the
cables/plug-in-cards plug into are wired.

So from the prints, which give the wiring to the indicator panel slots, I
managed to work out what an RK11-C panel would look like, roughly (captions
are made up, but the light locations are accurate):

   http://ana-3.lcs.mit.edu/~jnc/tech/pdp11/RK11-C_inlay.txt

Starting with that, Dave Bridgham managed to whip up a rough approcimation of
what the inlay would look like:

   http://pdp10.froghouse.org/qsic/inlay-rk11-c.pdf

We had put a certain amount of work into identifying a font which looks like
the one DEC used, back when; I worked with a member the UK to produce a bunch
of blank inlays (right size/shape, with the black paint on the back with the
holes for the lights). Dave then found someone who could print the white
lettering on the front, and this is what the result looked like, on an
'RK11-F' (the QSIC with RK emulation microcode) panel:

   http://ana-3.lcs.mit.edu/~jnc/tech/QSIC/jpg/RK11F-F.jpg

You can compare with an original DEC inlay (TC08, IIRC) here:

   http://ana-3.lcs.mit.edu/~jnc/tech/QSIC/jpg/DasBlinken2F.jpg

That's on the same light panel, just the inlay is changed. (The lights in the
lower one are from the light panel Dave produced for use with the QSIC; it's
totally incompatible, electrically, with the DEC originals; 4 wires, IIRC, run
the whole thing (data, clock, latch and a ground), as opposed to the 'wire per
light' of the DEC originals. Looks _just_ like the originals (which Tech Sq
used to have a lot of, BITD), though.


Anyway, if anyone is interested, the next step would be to find out who all
wants an RK11-C inlay, and work out _exactly_ what would be printed on it.

Noel

Re: DEC PDP-8/e H212 core mat repair

2021-07-19 Thread Rod Smallwood via cctalk




Yes most core stringing was outsourced.

By hand under magnification was used.

I cant recall any references to automation.

That would br down to the supplier.

The story I heard was at least some were done by embroidery girls in 
Hong Kong


Rod Smallwood   -- Digital Equipment Corporation  1975 to 1985


On 19/07/2021 22:50, Jules Richardson via cctalk wrote:

On 7/19/21 3:40 AM, Joshua Rice via cctalk wrote:
I believe much of the core manufacturing for DEC minicomputers was 
outsourced, but a lot of it had become much more automated by the 
late 60's and early 70's.


I've got a trio of planes here, two of which are from a Lockheed 
MAC-16, but the other one is made by Keronix out of Santa Monica for 
an unknown machine (dated 1973, model number "P4" and p/n 816335 if 
that means anything to anyone, approx 16"x16" with two 100-pin, 
double-sided finger edge connectors on 0.1" spacing).


Anyhoo, the Keronix one has a sticker on it saying it was repaired by 
DMA, inc. in Amery, WI in 1980 - which might suggest that there were 
third parties around working on boards, rather than them having to go 
back to the manufacturer for repair. (I have no idea what the nature 
of the repair was, of course; maybe it was to surrounding logic rather 
than the mat itself).


It's worth noting that most computer manufacturers appreciated the 
fragility of core memory planes at the time, with most of them being 
protected with either PCB's or perspex/plastic shields on top of the 
core planes.


Yes, that's how all the ones I've ever seen have been. The Keronix one 
has an additional shield over the top of the entire PCB, on top of the 
one protecting the cores.


Jules

Re: Ancient transistor ?computer board (Peter Van Peborgh)

2020-06-19 Thread Rod Smallwood via cctalk


Core memory driver board?


On 19/06/2020 02:22, Boris Gimbarzevsky via cctalk wrote:
Remember buying boards like that at electronics surplus places in late 
60's but never knew where they came from.  Just used them as a cheap 
source of parts.  Also suspect the black boxes are pulse transformers 
although all of the pulse transformers I pulled off boards were 
circular.  Never thought much then about where they came from and just 
got ones with most transistors and diodes on them so could make DTL 
logic gates from them.  Think a board like that might have gone for 
$1-2 back then which was way cheaper than buying new transistors and 
diodes in those days and TTL IC's were ridiculously expensive then.


Boris Gimbarzevsky

OK, now here are some pics that should be available to everybody. I 
hope.


https://photos.app.goo.gl/h64tye8ecmPHQfJD7

Smells of (early) 1960s transistorized.
No helpful marking apart from
*   "GATE JJ01" on SIDE A. (components).
*   "C NT OL DATA" on side B (solder traces).

Big transistors are Motorola "180376008". Also, any ideas what the 
"246 636

B" boxes are, they have four legs?

A curse on TinyURL and praise to Camiel Vanderhoven.

peter

Re: Standard Cocktail Napkin Size [WAS: RE: history is hard

2020-05-25 Thread Rod Smallwood via cctalk




On 25/05/2020 20:56, Fred Cisin via cctalk wrote:

The final media size was determined by Shugart Engineering led by Al
Chou from the size of the 8-track tape drive that the 5�-inch FDD was
to replace in Wang and other systems.  As near as I can tell it was
not the same size as a �standard� cocktail napkin.

"standard"??!?
"I believe in standards.  Everyone should have [a unique] one [of their
own]." - George Morrow I have seen napkins that are about 5.25".


On Mon, 25 May 2020, Tom Gardner via cctalk wrote:
I did attempt to see if there is a "standard" cocktail napkin size 
and as

best I can tell it is today 5-inches square not 5�-inches square.

A friend who is a veteran of the paper products industry provided me an
actual cocktail napkin circa 1980 (a promotional give away for his 
business)
that he recalls was procured to the then standard size which I 
measured as

5-inches square.  Apparently cocktail napkins have not deflated over the
intervening 40 years :-)

This supports Adkisson's recollection that the customer wanted something
about the size of a cocktail napkin and Chou's description of the
development process that tried to maximize the size of the disk that 
could

be received in a drive which in turn was designed to fit into the then
existing 8-track tape drive slot.



While 5" seems to be "standard", here is 5.25":
https://www.amazon.com/Beistle-S20936AZ3-Snowflake-Beverage-Napkins/dp/B076QC44WJ/ 



and here is 5" x 5.25"
https://www.amazon.com/SB-Design-Studio-D4430-Beverage/dp/B07R15GNGX/


Cocktail napkin HOLDERS seem to be 5.25", supporting 5" for the napkin.


5.25" = 3U (Standard rack size)

Re: Microsoft open sources GWBASIC

2020-05-22 Thread Rod Smallwood via cctalk

I remember sittig in the DEC Ealing (London) Office in 1975 watching a 
programmer work on TOPS 10


That was DEC's mainframe operating system.

A foot high of printout all in assembler!!!

On 22/05/2020 20:24, ben via cctalk wrote:

On 5/22/2020 6:06 AM, Bill Gunshannon via cctalk wrote:

On 5/22/20 2:56 AM, Rod Smallwood via cctalk wrote:

Now that is really cool. Good old MS

In '83 I was working for DEC and had access to things like BASIC+.

I was amazed at what they could do on a micoprocessor.



In my early days :-)  I was given a project to develop programs
for an LSI-11/02 with 28KW of memory and RX02 8" floppies.  I
got the project because the mainframe programmers I worked with
did not believe anything serious could be done in a machine that
small.  I developed programs that later e\went production using
MACRO-11, Pascal, Fortran and COBOL.  I doubt the products of
modern computer science education could duplicate what I did.
Efficiency is no longer a consideration.  Just throw more hardware
at the problem.

bill


Thows a PDP 8 to Bill. Batteries and BASIC not included.
Ducks.
Ben.

Re: Microsoft open sources GWBASIC

2020-05-22 Thread Rod Smallwood via cctalk


Now that is really cool. Good old MS

In '83 I was working for DEC and had access to things like BASIC+.

I was amazed at what they could do on a micoprocessor.


On 22/05/2020 06:42, jim stephens via cctalk wrote:


Seems of interest.  Will be interesting to play with.

https://devblogs.microsoft.com/commandline/microsoft-open-sources-gw-basic/

Re: HPE OpenVMS Hobbyist license program is closing

2020-03-20 Thread Rod Smallwood via cctalk




On 20/03/2020 21:28, Jan-Benedict Glaw via cctalk wrote:

Hi Maciej!

Long time no see!

On Fri, 2020-03-20 17:36:25 +, Maciej W. Rozycki  
wrote:

On Tue, 10 Mar 2020, Jan-Benedict Glaw via cctalk wrote:

Linux and/or NetBSD/vax would be a good choice, though, to implement the
VAX's system calls and execute it's binaries. Though there were more
concerted efforts to do this years ago, but I don't know what became of
them. Google shows a smattering of efforts littered with broken links. :(

There was a vax-linux port started by others, and I cared for it for a
good number of years. My life changed a lot since then, I quite failed
(and failed hard!) to bring up the needed time to care for Linux, care
for GCC and Binutils, GNU libc and all those programs silently
expecting IEEE floating point support.

  I'm still here to help. :)

<3


  I expect to get at least one of my VAXen online RSN (a 4000/60, with
TURBOchannel).  As in a couple of weeks' time (if only not that damn COVID
thing!).  It boots our ancient VAX/Linux port with an NFS-root over a PMAD
interface.  Other machines may follow.

Actually, I'm searching (more active than ever) for a proper location
to put all of my hardware to. I already have shelves, controllable
power plugs, and just today an EPROM reader/writer arrived. Though I'm
unsure (to use fair language) when there'll be a really up-to-date
working Linux port. But maybe at some time, there'll be one!

MfG, JBG


Considering the struggle I'm having installing any version of NetBSD on 
any of my VAX systems that would nice to have.


Rod Smallwood - Digital Equipment Corporation  - 1975 - 1985


--

NetBSD on a VAX 3100 (DV-31AT1-A)

2020-03-15 Thread Rod Smallwood via cctalk


Hi All

With the upcoming demise of VMS/VAX I thought I might give NetBSD/vax a try.

Downloading a bootable image and burning it onto a CD was not a problem.

On the 3100 with attached RRD42 and SCSI drive RZ26l the CD duly booted 
ito the NetBSD install menu.


All of versions 7,8 and 9. failed after partitioning at the point where 
the system is copied to the hard disk.


Has anybody successfuly installed NetBSD on a VAX.  If which version on 
which VAX


Rod Smallwood


--

Re: HPE OpenVMS Hobbyist license program is closing

2020-03-10 Thread Rod Smallwood via cctalk




On 11/03/2020 01:02, John H. Reinhardt via cctalk wrote:

On 3/10/2020 6:46 PM, Doug Jackson via cctalk wrote:

Having worked for them in also not surprised.

When they absorbed Compaq their culture changed.  Significantly for the
worse.

I'd be stunned if they existed in a form other that selling printers and
ink cartridges in 5 years time.

They can't, they have no printers or ink to sell.  They already broke 
the company up into HP - printers, ink and PC's and HPE - Servers, etc 
(including OpenVMS until it was sold or licensed to VSI).


Then it is to VSI we must turn our attention. An email from every VMS 
hobbyist might wake them up.



--

Re: HPE OpenVMS Hobbyist license program is closing

2020-03-09 Thread Rod Smallwood via cctalk


On 10/03/2020 02:19, Fred Cisin via cctalk wrote:


On Tue, 10 Mar 2020, Doug Jackson via cctalk wrote:

So.
At the end of the day there are three paths.
1.  Accept that HP doesn't give two hoots about hobbyists and patch the
abandoned operating system to fix the problem.
2. Declare that we need to develop an open replacement.
Or
3.  Accept that HP actually owns the rights to our VAX 11/785 
machines and
arrange for them to be dropped off at their corporate headquarters 
because

they can't do anything without software.
Sigh...


4. Contemplate what would happen if dropped off from a considerable 
altitude, . . .


It is discouraging that they have the power, and legal rights, to do 
what they like, but don't value the hobbyist market enough to try to 
help.




--
Like all large US corporations they are dollar driven

PDP - 8 Front panels

2019-11-28 Thread Rod Smallwood via cctalk


Hello Everybody

 After a two year pause due to my wife having been ill but now fully 
recovered I am back to starting making pdp-8 front panels again


I have some stock:

pdp-8/e (type A - vertical selector switch start mark)

pdp-8/e (type B -  selector  switch start to left of vertical)

pdp-8/f panels

As pdp8/f but no /f marking. - doing a /m overprint for it

pdp8/i

I am looking for scrap pdp/8 panels (might trade for a new one), hi res 
front (and back) dead center pictures (panel on its own) and accurate 
dimensions (including holes) of any pdp-8 panel to aid me in offering 
the complete range.


PDP-11 ?  Not at this time but maybe later

I am busy at the moment with artwork redrawing.

The UK winter is not kind to making screens.

Even in good warm weather the exposed and washed out screen in its frame 
takes 24 hours to dry.


Then after printing each layer (up to five per panel) takes 24hrs to dry 
before another layer can be added.


Authentic panels produced the exact way they were in the '60s and '70s 
ain't going to be quick or cheap.


But the result is sure worth it.


Rod 'Panelman' Smallwood (Digital Equipment Corporation 1975 - 1985)


--

Re: Straight -8 Front Panel

2019-11-25 Thread Rod Smallwood via cctalk


Hi Ethan

Ok .. I now have dimensions and will add you to the list

I have only recently got back to doing panels after a break of a couple 
of years.


My wife has not been too well and has been hospitalized on a couple of 
occaisions.


However now she is just about fully recovered so I'm back to making panels.

I have stocks of PDP8/e (A and B), PDP8/f and universal /f or /m (unmarked).

I'm redoing the old artwork and looking to do my own screening when the 
weather gets better.


Doing silk screen printing in a English winter is not a good idea.

We have had showery rain and temps in the range -1C to +4C for weeks.

It aint going to get better anytime soon.

Even in a heated room the humidity is too high for quick drying.

I plan to have a range of panels made and in stock next spring.

I'm always interested in requirements for panels.

So if you hear of any please let me know.

Rod Smallwood



On 25/11/2019 21:10, Ethan Dicks via cctalk wrote:

On Mon, Nov 25, 2019 at 4:02 PM corey cohen via cctalk
 wrote:

If no one answers I can measure the panel at the VCF Museum’s straight-8 on 
Wednesday when I’m there.

I have the means to give the answer (and I'm likely to be a purchaser
since mine has some paint damage) but I can't get to mine before
December.

Looking forward to hearing the answer.

-ethan


--

Straight -8 Front Panel

2019-11-25 Thread Rod Smallwood via cctalk


Hi

  Can anybody tell me the dimensions of a Straight-8 Front Panel. - 
Just the glass section


Thanks

Rod


--

Re: Tandem Minicomputers

2019-09-30 Thread Rod Smallwood via cctalk

Their UK office was on the lower floor of a building I used to visit in 
High Wycombe circa 1980


Rod


On 30/09/2019 07:02, Joseph S. Barrera III via cctalk wrote:

Not obscure at all, at least not to me. I worked for Jim Gray circa 1996 -
1999 and he worked for Tandem during the NonStop era which informed his
knowledge of fault-tolerance that helped him advise the Windows NT
Clustering team.

Don't toss it!!! If you can't find

On Sun, Sep 29, 2019 at 9:46 PM Jason T via cctalk 
wrote:


Well I said no more computers I can't lift, but exotic systems keep
finding me.  So today we pulled a Tandem CLX out of a basement, along
with a few boxes of docs, 9-track tapes and random odd and ends:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/m2N7RKN3JXcmVTUC8

There's such as thing as "so obscure that no one knows/cares about
it".  I've had those before.  Do I have another?  It sure is heavy.

-j


--

Re: advice upcoming visit to Bletchley Park / comp museum

2019-07-07 Thread Rod Smallwood via cctalk


Gatwick to Bletchley and back on a Thursday - Difficult.

Public transport or road on a workday in London er.. I don't think so.

Time at Bletchley would be short and you really need the two hour NMOC 
guided tour - its a bit of a rabbit warren.


I'm an hour and a bit south west (Newbury) by fast car.

It took a complete day including a private booked tour just for the 
Computer Museum.


So go there - stay near - allow 2/3 days - one day = no way

Rod G8DGR

On 06/07/2019 20:38, Dave Wade via cctalk wrote:

Bill,
  I think you will be cutting things fine. The risks are up to you,
  You won't drive from Gatwick to Bletchley in an hour. It’s the wrong side of 
London. Google is currently saying 1h 33Mins.
  However, the route involves the M25 via Heathrow and that has frequent 
blockages so IMHO it’s a risky option.
  Conversely getting the train means crossing London and getting a tube. Google 
is saying allow 1h 54m for that at present.
  Then TNMOC (where all the computers are) does not open until 10.30. Allowing 
two hours for a visit means its tight getting back to Gatwick.
Dave
G4UGM



-Original Message-
From: cctech  On Behalf Of Bill Degnan via
cctech
Sent: 06 July 2019 10:54
To: cctech 
Subject: Wtd: advice upcoming visit to Bletchley Park / comp museum

Hi...I am arriving at Gatwick Airport this weds evening1045pm and I have a
17 hour layover.  I'd like to visit the national computer museum at bletchley
park about an hour north.  I see I can rent a car from the airport and drive to 
a
hotel near the  museum.  There are a few hotels with
24/7 desks.  Concerns?  Total time in England is 17 hours, 8 of which needed
for sleep, plus travel to and from the airport and museum.  Not sure how
efficient the car rental return process is, etc.  Need some buffer for
unknowns Thanks in advance

Bill


--

11/93 next step

2019-05-31 Thread Rod Smallwood via cctalk


Hi

 Well we are moving forward.

The 160336 alternate RQDX3 address and vector have been confirmed as OK 
by one of our Techno Mages.


So rather than an RX50 I'll give an RX33 whirl. A floppy disk way in 
means I can enhance the baseline RT system.


Time to dig out all of the Q-bus controllers and see what else we can add.

I have a Viking SCSI controller. That might be interesting as an 
alternative to the CQD.


I think I may have Q bus controllers for my RX01 and RX02. AKA as 'Clonk 
City'


11/93 is no end of fun. Best thing since my brother fell in the slurry 
pit 60 years ago.


Rod


--

Re: 11/93 Rebuild - SCSI HD now boots RT11

2019-05-31 Thread Rod Smallwood via cctalk




On 31/05/2019 19:40, allison via cctalk wrote:

On 05/31/2019 02:04 PM, Rod Smallwood via cctalk wrote:

Hi

     Well I now have a bootable SCSI drive on my 11/93. Its not RSTS/E
(yet) but it is RT 11 and reliable.

Its a bit baseline but it runs.

So next up was to see if we could get the RQDX3 to co-exist with the
SCSI controller.

I switched the base address to 160336 and it does not stop the SCSI
drive booting as DU0.

Had the RQDX3 been on the normal base address I think you would get the
HD as DU0 and the two halves of an RX50 as the next two drives.

But what happens to the RX50's when you move the RQDX3 to 160336 ?

Rod




Under RT-11 you have to do a SET CSR and sometimes Vector when you move
a device off the default.  Its how I could have two DD (tu58) on teo
serial ports.  Same for RX02, RL02, with RQDX3 (with RD52 and RX33)
where the RQDX was set to a nonstandard address.

As I remember the CMD controller is nominally the same as RQDX3 for the
same address. so likely RQDX at the secondary address (see the manual)
will be treated well if not use the set utility.  It  only comes to mind
as I had two RQDX3s in one machine to make RD52 to RD52 copies at one
point.  Also my BA123 uVAX-II has both CMD SCSI controller (Rz56 x2) and
RQDX3 for RD52 wher the RD52 was the swap and page disk (QD540s are fast
but only 31mb) and by having independent channels helped with system
performance.

RSTS/E the conventions for non standard device addresses are different
but there is a mechanism for addressing that.  I've not used that.

Any of the PDP11 unix again there is a way but the process varies with
version and is unknown to me.  I tried once to get V^ to talk to more
than RL02.

In the end first make sure you using the suggested secondary controller
address.  Then use the OS dependent tools for installing additional drives.

Allison


Hi
   OK lets see if I can understand whats going on.

1. The CQD sits at the normal 17772150 base address
2. RQDX3 is at the alternate 17760334 base address.
3. The map function in the 11/93 monitor sees both
4. The SCSI drive boots RT11 with the RQDX3 in place.
5. So if I connect an RX50 through the cable splitter as normal then what 
device(s) is(are) the RX50
Rod


--

11/93 Rebuild - SCSI HD now boots RT11

2019-05-31 Thread Rod Smallwood via cctalk


Hi

    Well I now have a bootable SCSI drive on my 11/93. Its not RSTS/E 
(yet) but it is RT 11 and reliable.


Its a bit baseline but it runs.

So next up was to see if we could get the RQDX3 to co-exist with the 
SCSI controller.


I switched the base address to 160336 and it does not stop the SCSI 
drive booting as DU0.


Had the RQDX3 been on the normal base address I think you would get the 
HD as DU0 and the two halves of an RX50 as the next two drives.


But what happens to the RX50's when you move the RQDX3 to 160336 ?

Rod



--

11/93 rebuild - Major and Significant Result.

2019-05-28 Thread Rod Smallwood via cctalk


Hi

 Due to the help from Glen Slick. (The only guy to answer the 
question as asked.)


 What to do is interesting. How to do it will get you there.

I now have a SCSI drive on the 11/93 that thinks its an RD54 and is 
trying to boot RSTS/E.


It fails gracefully during the boot  giving an error message.

So we have a working Hard Drive and Controller on the target system.

No to find out what it does not like.

The transfer rig is now working OK.

So I can try out more drives if needed

Rod

--

11/93 Rebuild - Project resumed - PSU replaced

2019-05-28 Thread Rod Smallwood via cctalk


11/93 Rebuild - Project resumed - PSU replaced


Rod


--

11/93 rebuild - Project Suspended - PC died


The Acer PC I was using to write the image to the SCSI drive has gone kaput.

Clearly PSU (not plugtop  mains fuse).

Its a non standard PSU and no schematic available.

Fall back is to get one of the SLU's (other than the console) on the 
KDJ11-E going and TU58 it.



Rod


--

11/93 rebuild


Hi

    Whilst I wait to hear from Glen Slick who has got me this far 
(Thanks Glen) I'll restate the problem.


1. I now have an old XP system with SIMH on it (PDP11.exe)

2.  I have created RD54.dsk containing RSTS/E

3. Attached to the system is a 2.1Gb SCSI drive via an adaptec 2940 
controller


4. I need a tried and tested list of step by step instructions to put 
RD54.dsk on the SCSI drive.


5. The drive will then be moved to a CQD-220A/TM SCSI controller on my 
KDJ11-E based 11/93 and must boot.


6. Its just an image copy from one drive to another on the same system.

7. Nobody has come up with a tried and tested list of step by step 
instructions yet.



Rod Smallwood


--

Re: 11/93 Rebuild

I think the answer may be PUTR but I'll wait and see what Glen says .. 
He's been right so far.


Rod


On 27/05/2019 09:56, Christian Corti via cctalk wrote:

On Mon, 27 May 2019, Rod Smallwood wrote:

  On an old XP box?  er neither will run


My reply was meant as a hint. You should be able to find a dd-like 
tool for Windows yourself ;-) Either by using a old version of Cygwin 
(there are instructions how to find them), by installing a stand-alone 
"dd" for Windows, whatever.


Christian


--

Re: 11/93 Rebuild


Hi

  On an old XP box?  er neither will run

Rod


On 27/05/2019 08:25, Christian Corti via cctalk wrote:

# dd if=RD54.dsk of=/dev/sda  [or whatever the device name is]

Oh, you said Windows... I'd recommend installing Cygwin ;-)


--

11/93 Rebuild


Hi

  Thanks to Glen Slick I now have a old windows xp system running SIMH

 Its connected to my LAN so web and file access are OK

 In addition to the normal IDE drive it has an additional SCSI 
controller and drive


  Using SIMH  I have created an image (RD54.dsk) containing a RSTS 
system.


 I am awaiting the final instructions as to how to copy the image 
to the SCSI drive in such a way I can connect it to the SCSI controller 
in the 11/93 and have it boot.



Rod Smallwood



--

Re: TU58FS

2019-05-23 Thread Rod Smallwood via cctalk


Hi

    It does not have to be done using TU58.

If you would be so kind as to explain the bit about SIMH and dd.

What to do is good.. How even better.

If I can get  a bootable OS image onto the SCSI drive with what I have 
available then that's all I  need.


Rod Smallwood


On 24/05/2019 00:56, Glen Slick via cctalk wrote:

On Thu, May 23, 2019 at 1:36 PM Rod Smallwood via cctalk
 wrote:

Hi

  I am working on getting my KDJ11-E based system up.

I have a CQD220A and a SCSI hard drive installed and formatted.

A serial connection to a Raspberry Pi soon brought up the console on the
PDP-11 using TU58FS.

Next will be a second serial line to allow TU58 emulation. SFSG

What is not clear is if I can get a bootable OS (RT, RSX or whatever)
image onto the Hard Drive using TU58FS.

Is getting set up to use TU58 emulation and then using that as a
software installation source one of the goals on its own, or is that
just one of the solutions you are considering in the larger goal of
getting software up and running on your 11/93?

If you are open to other software installation options, it should be a
lot quicker and easier to install software to a disk image using SIMH,
and then "dd" that image to a SCSI disk that the CQD220A is configured
to use. I have gone that route a few times to get 2.11BSD and RSTS/E
10.1 running on real PDP-11 hardware with CQD-220 controllers.


--

TU58FS

2019-05-23 Thread Rod Smallwood via cctalk


Hi

    I am working on getting my KDJ11-E based system up.

I have a CQD220A and a SCSI hard drive installed and formatted.

A serial connection to a Raspberry Pi soon brought up the console on the 
PDP-11 using TU58FS.


Next will be a second serial line to allow TU58 emulation. SFSG

What is not clear is if I can get a bootable OS (RT, RSX or whatever)  
image onto the Hard Drive using TU58FS.


Any advice as to if and how this could be done would be greatly 
appreciated .


Rod Smallwood



--

11/93 Rebuild

2019-05-18 Thread Rod Smallwood via cctalk


Hi Guys

   Well the RD53 in my 11/93 finally clapped out.

   The CPU is a late model KDJ11-E with everything on the one board.

   So its a switch from MFM to SCSI Drives.

   A CQD220A will drive the hard disk and the RQDX3 will stay to 
look after the RX50


   I've  put the Hard Drive on the primary CSR address (17772150) 
and I will shift the RQDX3 to an alternate CSR


   Comments as to if this is the right way round and what CSR's to 
use for the two controllers invited.


  Rod


--

Re: Original AGC restoration / was Re: Apollo 8 Mission Control printers, or not?

2018-12-29 Thread Rod Smallwood via cctalk




On 30/12/2018 06:27, Daniel Seagraves via cctalk wrote:



On Dec 29, 2018, at 11:17 AM, Curious Marc via cctalk  
wrote:

Yes that would be lucky us. Hotel was no fun but owner understandably did not 
want to ship or even get separated from his AGC. We have been offered some real 
lab space in Houston for next time, so hopefully we’ll be in better shape.

Considering that I have had more than one person threaten to dox me and show up 
at my house over KEYBOARDS, I don’t blame him at all.


Well you certainly got a long way.
What is dox? I am English and I don't speak fluent American anymore.
This must all have something to do with 1969 when I watched it all on a 9" mono 
TV in my little flat in Germany where I was working.
I don't know who I admire most. You guys or those who made the AGC all that 
time ago.


--

Re: Origin of 'Straight 8' name

2018-12-21 Thread Rod Smallwood via cctalk

I worked with PDP-8's from 1970 to 1975 and worked at DEC from 1975 to 
1985.


I cannot recall the term 'Straight 8' ever being used.

I think it may have been referred to as the 'Model 8'

Rod Smallwood


On 22/12/2018 03:46, John Ames via cctalk wrote:

I'd definitely be interested to hear if the DECheads on this list know
the specifics, but I'd gathered that it came about once other models
were introduced and the need arose to differentiate between, say, a
PDP-8/e and a "straight" (i.e. vanilla) PDP-8. The car connection
probably made the particular phrasing happen (of course, they
originally photographed it in a Volkswagen, but they couldn't very
well have started calling it a "flat-4!")


--

It's back

2017-12-15 Thread Rod Smallwood via cctalk


After a  couple of months of outage my list feed is back..

Rod Smallwood


--

A Mystery

2017-10-10 Thread Rod Smallwood via cctalk


I have in my possession a back plane from a BA23.

Somebody has put glue in the last three slots.

Can anybody explain that?

Rod


--
Wanted one pdp-8/i rocker switch leaver to copy.

Re: Did DEC make a Daisy Wheel printer?

2017-10-10 Thread Rod Smallwood via cctalk




On 10/10/2017 07:50, Eric Smith via cctalk wrote:

On Sun, Oct 8, 2017 at 10:19 AM, Zane Healy via cctalk <
cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote:


Did DEC make any sort of impact printer, besides dot-matrix printers?  I
have an LA50 or two, and dot-matrix isn’t what I’m after.


They sold some drum, chain, and band printers, but I think they were all
OEM'd.  Late examples were the LP25, LP26, and LP27/LP29. Note that some
system-specific printer subsystems (e.g., LP11-xx, LP20-xx, and LP32-xx)
contained printers with their own separate designations.

As far as I recall, the only printer mechanisms DEC made themselves were
dot matrix impact or electrolytic.  Of course, they also OEM'd some
dot-matrix printers, including the LA50 and LA75.

I remember seeing the LA-36 Production Line at Westfield in 1975.
They made them by the 1000. When I sold them my MOQ was 500.

Rod

--
Wanted one pdp-8/i rocker switch leaver to copy.

Re: Did DEC make a Daisy Wheel printer?

2017-10-08 Thread Rod Smallwood via cctalk


LQP02



On 08/10/2017 18:19, Zane Healy via cctalk wrote:

Did DEC make any sort of impact printer, besides dot-matrix printers?  I have 
an LA50 or two, and dot-matrix isn’t what I’m after.

Zane




--
Wanted one pdp-8/i rocker switch leaver to copy.

Re: OpenVMS Hobbyist & HPE vs. HP

2017-10-08 Thread Rod Smallwood via cctalk






On 08/10/2017 05:13, Zane Healy via cctalk wrote:

Has anyone gotten any Hobbyist Licenses lately?  I’m trying to get them, and I 
notice that while I’m signing up at an HPE.com website, the initial email comes 
from an HP.com address.  So far no luck getting licenses, but they might have 
gone to my now nonexistent Aracnet email address (aka NL:).

Zane




--
Wanted one pdp-8/i rocker switch leaver to copy.

TU58 to 11/73 - Success!!

2017-10-07 Thread Rod Smallwood via cctalk


I had to use the magic wand (Tektronix scope probe) and we have a runner..

Bad connections as ever..

Rod



--
Wanted one pdp-8/i rocker switch leaver to copy.

Re: PDP-Lifter

2017-10-07 Thread Rod Smallwood via cctalk




On 07/10/2017 06:53, Steve Malikoff via cctalk wrote:

After the discussion last year about lifting and racking heavy gear, I bodged 
together some hardware and
came up with the PDP-Lifter. It allows easy movement, lifting and lowering for 
racking and unracking equipment
in 19" racks. Specifically for PDP-11's and the H960, but could be used for 
pretty much any other old stuff.

I've written a blurb with construction details which you can find at
 http://web.aanet.com.au/~malikoff/pdp11/PDP-Lifter/

(also posted to my blog on the VCF forum)

Steve.


I wish I had a H960 to lift!!  Can't get them in the UK.
Rod

--
Wanted one pdp-8/i rocker switch leaver to copy.

Re: TU58 Serial port address

2017-10-06 Thread Rod Smallwood via cctalk

On 06/10/2017 21:21, Noel Chiappa via cctalk wrote:

 > From: Rod Smallwood

 > I do not know the correct addresses or vectors I need so I can't set
 > them.
 > ...
 > State like this for each and every jumper required

Sorry, too busy to type all that out. Jumper it for 776500/300.

Noel

Now lets see - DLV11-J Manual says Factory setting is

    Base Address 176500 / Base Vector 300
    Channel 3 is console at 177560-177566

    So Channel 0 at 176500 / 300 for the TU58 = Factory
 Channel 0 8-n-1 = Factory

    Set Channel 0 Baud Rate to 19200  =  Connect K to 0

  Disable console = C1  X to 0 and C2 X to 0

So do the above and connect TU-58 to Channel 0 and it will be Device DD0 
under RT11FB - Yes?

Rod

--

Wanted one pdp-8/i rocker switch leaver to copy.

Re: TU58 Serial port address

2017-10-06 Thread Rod Smallwood via cctalk

Manual is no help.

It tells you how to set the jumpers but not which ones for this situation.

I do not know the correct addresses or vectors I need so I can't set them.

So..   for this specific case ..

 1. What do I connect to what  to get the TU58 connected to the 11/73 
at 19200 baud

 Like this for example ..

  Connect jumper at position XX from x to 0

 State like this for each and every jumper required

 2. Where does the board go in the back plane?

3.  Which of the four channels does the TU58 connect to?

Rod

On 06/10/2017 16:57, systems_glitch via cctalk wrote:

Whatever SLU number means "at 176500" :) Always been confused by the naming
for SLUs vs. "channels" on e.g. the DLV11-J

Rod, you set the jumpers according to the manual:

http://bitsavers.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de/pdf/dec/qbus/EK-DLV1J-UG-001_DLV11-J_Users_Guide_Oct78.pdf

The default config will get you TU58 on channel 0, console SLU on channel
3. From a quick read-through it looks like you can disable the console SLU
feature and return channel 3 to the normal block of consecutive addresses.
That will let you keep the console on the KDJ11-B SLU. It'll also give you
one more serial port on your system (total of 5, assuming you have the
DLV11-J and KDF11-B and no other SLUs or mux cards).

Thanks,
Jonathan

On Fri, Oct 6, 2017 at 11:42 AM, Noel Chiappa via cctalk <
cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote:

 > From: systems_glitch

 > get a DLV11 and set it up as SLU0 for TU58

I think you meant SLU1, no? That's the standard for the TU58 (SLU0 is the
console).

 Noel

--
Wanted one pdp-8/i rocker switch leaver to copy.

TU58 Serial port address

2017-10-06 Thread Rod Smallwood via cctalk


Hi

  I have a TU58 - yes a real one - yes it works (sticky rollers 
fixed) . How do I know - tested it on a PC at 19200 baud.


      I also have a DZQ11  M3106 4 Async. Line Board and cab kit with 
four RS232 connectors.


      My 11/73 has a KDJ11-B so the console SLU is already set up.

  RT11FB runs just fine.

     I don't want to boot the TU58 just read and write to it.

 Yes I have read the manuals - no help.

    So I need to install the board in the correct slot with the correct 
address, vector etc switches set to talk to the TU58 whilst avoiding the 
console SLU address.


    Any ideas guys?


    Rod Smallwood



--
Wanted one pdp-8/i rocker switch leaver to copy.

PDP11/84 and PDP-11/94 notes

2017-09-24 Thread Rod Smallwood via cctalk


First ... If the following is already known or incorrect then apologies.

In my efforts to get an 11/94 running with UniBus cards the following 
came to light.


1. You need to start with the fact there are _two_ different types of 
hybrid Uni/Qbus back planes that can go in a BA box.


2. One has _four_ QBus slots and the other _three_.

3. The four slot type was the first type produced .

4. In an 11/84 a four Qbus slot backlane  has a MDM (monitor) module in 
the first slot, a KDJ11-B CPU in the second slot, PMI memory in the 
third and a MLM (load module) in the forth.


5. This type of 11/84 could be converted into an 11/94 with a kit of 
parts. The 11/94 manual shows this conversion


6. After conversion you ended up with a KDJ11-E in the first slot, and 
an APS module in the second slot.


7. If the 11/94 manual is correct then the other two slots are left 
empty and an MLM module is located in the Unibus back plane.


8. So far so good. An 11/84-A converted into an 11/94 as per the 11/94 
manual.



Then the weird bit There's a section that mentions an 11/84-E (never 
heard of those) conversion to 11/94 but does not seem to make any sense.



So what about the three QBus slot back plane?

Well I have two 11/94 systems with this type of back plane and they are 
clearly only suitable to hold an KDJ11-E and its APS module.


It could never be the basis of a KDJ11-B 11/84 - not enough slots.


So there can be two types of 11/94.

One an upgrade from a KDJ11-B 11/84 with its four QBus slot back plane.

The other native KDJ11-E 11/94 based on the three slot.

Comments and confirmations please

Rod






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Re: PDP-11/73 and 11/94 update

2017-09-21 Thread Rod Smallwood via cctalk




On 20/09/2017 17:30, Ulrich Tagge via cctalk wrote:

Hi Rod,

I have not the chance to go into the basement before Weekend, but have 
document the installation here:

http://www.pdp-11.de/index.php/pdp-11/rt11-5-4g-installation/

My 11/84 have the KDJ11-B (m8190).



Vielen Dank am interessantesten. Ich muss auch genau die Einstellung 
kennen, die du auf deinem Konfigurationsbildschirm hast - Rod


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Re: PDP-11/73 and 11/94 update

2017-09-20 Thread Rod Smallwood via cctalk



I installed the RX01 Unibus adapter in slot 5

Then replaced the slot 5 NPG  jumper (RX01 is not DMA) They are 
underneath the motherboard on an 11/94


Next I connected up the RX01 and used original DEC RT-11 v5.4 RX01 
distribution disks.


Then turned on and tried to boot DX.

Same result it says Trying.

If you have an 11/84 then whats on the KDJ-11 dialog screen would be 
very interesting.

Which KDJ-11 do you have?

Can you get a picture of your console screen set up to boot from  an 
RX01 or RX01?


Rod


On 20/09/2017 13:47, Ulrich Tagge via cctalk wrote:
Hi Rod,  > > I had an similar issue, when trying to boot a RX02 Disk created on 
my > /84 on a /34a. Have bypassed this and have installed a fresh RT11, 
> but had no time to figure out the problem. Would it of interest for > 
you, to get RX02 Images (PDP11GUI) of my RT-11 V5.4 G Distribution > 
Set? With them, you could install your /94 from scratch, ... . > > Many 
Greetings > > Ulrich >

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02

Re: PDP-11/73 and 11/94 update

2017-09-20 Thread Rod Smallwood via cctalk


Hi

   1.   The complete RX02 with cable and disk (initialized and 
system copied /boot to it) boots the 11/73 on an RX02 controller so mode 
is correct.


   2.        The 11/94 boot menu allows you to choose DY0 or DY1 and 
both have been tried after moving the floppy of course.


    3.   As the startup messages appear the disk is being read.


Rod




On 20/09/2017 12:30, Ulrich Tagge via cctalk wrote:

Hi Rod,

I'm sure you are aware about, ... the /94 have a MDM card/module, 
where you can set the NPG jumper via switches. Is this set correct for 
all the slots, no mismatch in counting the small switches?
Have you checked the flat ribbon cable - I had much fun with damaged 
cables?

Have you tried dy0 and dy1?
Is the RX02 set to the correct mode?
The known good 8" disk, is a rx02 disk and not a rx01?

Many Greetings

Ulrich



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PDP-11/73 and 11/94 update

2017-09-20 Thread Rod Smallwood via cctalk


Well I did get the 11/73 booted from RX50 floppy on an RQDX3.

I then went on to get a SCSI (DEC DSP5200) Hard Drive on a CQD220 
booting and running RT-11 V5.4.


In the process I established that I have a good working RX01 and a good 
working RX02 that both boot RT-11 V5.4 from 8 inch Floppy.


I have the parts for another RX02 and that only lacks the circuit 
breaker on the PSU. (AIRPAX type anybody got one?)


There is a lot of interaction between RT-11v5.4, RQDX3, CQD220 and the 
RX01 and RX02 controllers.


I have read up all the back references (VCF and so on) on this subject 
but I am not sure I fully understand all of the ramifications.



So back to the main event, the 11/94.

This is the last of the PDP/11's and is a hybrid.

KJD-11 CPU in a Q-bus back plane bridged to a Unibus.

The KJD works and all of its monitor and boot controls are available via 
the console terminal.


I have Unibus interface cards for both RX01 and RX02.

So grant and terminator cards in the right places and RX02 Unibus card 
in the correct slot.


Connect up the cable (Red stripe to AA on BERG's)

Known bootable RT-11 8 inch floppy in the RX02.

Turn on RX02 then 11/94 (Nice healthy clonk from the drive)

Pick DY off the boot ROM list and sure enough the system starts to load 
from the RX02.


Then it just hangs.

Comments please


Rod






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Re: Rainbow Disk Imager




On 14/09/2017 18:37, Rod Smallwood via cctalk wrote:



On 14/09/2017 17:55, Paul Koning via cctalk wrote:
On Sep 14, 2017, at 12:41 PM, Paul Koning via cctalk 
<cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote:



On Sep 14, 2017, at 12:27 PM, jim stephens via cctalk 
<cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote:




On 9/14/2017 9:19 AM, Fred Cisin via cctalk wrote:

You have some .dsk images of SSDD 96tpi for 11/73.
I have some also, and would love if there is a writeup of a known 
working procedure to use as a reference.


Having a list of programs and systems is great, but I'd also like 
to know a few formulas that absolutely worked for someone as a 
starting point.


We have copies of a VMS 4.3 floppy set on RX50's which we will 
image as well, and using something other than the DEC hardware will 
be useful.
It's easy on Linux.  PC 5.25 inch drives have settable format 
parameters.  The PC default is 9 sectors per track, but you can set 
it to 10 for RX50 compatibility.


At one point you'd do that with an entry in /etc/fdprm:

rx50    800    10   1  80    0 0x23 0x01 0xDF 0x50

There's still a command line approach, I forgot the command name 
though.  You can also do it under program control with the the 
FDSETPRM ioctl.  I have some Python code (in my "FLX" utility for 
operating on RSTS file systems) that does this.


One complication: if you have an image which has the blocks in 
logical order, you need to shuffle them to account for the strange 
track numbering, interleaving, and track to track sector skew.  
Here's a program that will do that.  (It operates on image files, 
not on the actual floppy drive.)

Ok, attachments get stripped.  Here it is.

#!/usr/bin/env python3

"""rx50.py

This is a simple program to convert between interleaved and 
non-interleaved

(logical block order) layouts for RX50 floppies or container files.

Invocation:
 rx50.py [-i] infile [-i] outfile

If the filename is preceded by -i, that file is/will be interleaved.  
Infile
or outfile may be an actual floppy (in which case -i is in effect 
automatically).
While it is legal to specify -i twice, or not at all, this is rather 
uninteresting
because it merely makes an image copy of the container in a fairly 
inefficient

manner.
"""

from rstsio import disk
import sys

def main (args):
 a = iter (args)
 il = False
 ifn = next (a)
 if ifn == "-i":
 il = True
 ifn = next (a)
 idisk = disk.Disk (ifn, interleave = il)
 il = False
 ofn = next (a)
 if ofn == "-i":
 il = True
 ofn = next (a)
 odisk = disk.Disk.create (ofn, idisk.sz, interleave = il)
 odisk.setrwdisk (True)
 dcns = idisk.sz // idisk.dcs
 for i in range (dcns):
 ic = idisk.readclu (i)
 oc = odisk.newclu (i)
 oc[:] = ic
 odisk.flush ()
 idisk.close ()
 odisk.close ()

if __name__ == "__main__":
 main (sys.argv[1:])


Sounds good.
But I have to work with what I have:

An 11/73 with:
One serial (console) line
An RX50 booting xxdp
A CQD220 SCSI controller with a DSP5200s attached.
RT11 customer diagnostics A and B

The DSP5200S is formatted and is seen as DU6

One PC running windows 10

There's no Linux systems, no C compilers, emulators or weird hardware 
available.


But I do have a Rainbow which is the console to the 11/73

I just need to write the RT11 disk images I have to RX50 using the 
Rainbow.



I found this
As part of my entry for this year's RetroChallenge Winter Warm-Up 
(http://retrochallenge.net/2009/winter/news.html),

 I've created some disk imaging utilities for the Rainbow 100.
Specifically, the utilities can create RX50 images from disks, or write 
disks from RX50 images, similar to dd on GNU/Linux and rawrite on 
Windows/DOS.
The utilities are downloadable from my blog 
(http://jeff.rainbow-100.com/?p=50).


But its a dead end
R

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Re: Rainbow Disk Imager




On 14/09/2017 17:55, Paul Koning via cctalk wrote:

On Sep 14, 2017, at 12:41 PM, Paul Koning via cctalk  
wrote:



On Sep 14, 2017, at 12:27 PM, jim stephens via cctalk  
wrote:



On 9/14/2017 9:19 AM, Fred Cisin via cctalk wrote:

You have some .dsk images of SSDD 96tpi for 11/73.

I have some also, and would love if there is a writeup of a known working 
procedure to use as a reference.

Having a list of programs and systems is great, but I'd also like to know a few 
formulas that absolutely worked for someone as a starting point.

We have copies of a VMS 4.3 floppy set on RX50's which we will image as well, 
and using something other than the DEC hardware will be useful.

It's easy on Linux.  PC 5.25 inch drives have settable format parameters.  The 
PC default is 9 sectors per track, but you can set it to 10 for RX50 
compatibility.

At one point you'd do that with an entry in /etc/fdprm:

rx50 80010   1  800 0x23 0x01 0xDF 0x50

There's still a command line approach, I forgot the command name though.  You can also do 
it under program control with the the FDSETPRM ioctl.  I have some Python code (in my 
"FLX" utility for operating on RSTS file systems) that does this.

One complication: if you have an image which has the blocks in logical order, 
you need to shuffle them to account for the strange track numbering, 
interleaving, and track to track sector skew.  Here's a program that will do 
that.  (It operates on image files, not on the actual floppy drive.)

Ok, attachments get stripped.  Here it is.

#!/usr/bin/env python3

"""rx50.py

This is a simple program to convert between interleaved and non-interleaved
(logical block order) layouts for RX50 floppies or container files.

Invocation:
 rx50.py [-i] infile [-i] outfile

If the filename is preceded by -i, that file is/will be interleaved.  Infile
or outfile may be an actual floppy (in which case -i is in effect 
automatically).
While it is legal to specify -i twice, or not at all, this is rather 
uninteresting
because it merely makes an image copy of the container in a fairly inefficient
manner.
"""

from rstsio import disk
import sys

def main (args):
 a = iter (args)
 il = False
 ifn = next (a)
 if ifn == "-i":
 il = True
 ifn = next (a)
 idisk = disk.Disk (ifn, interleave = il)
 il = False
 ofn = next (a)
 if ofn == "-i":
 il = True
 ofn = next (a)
 odisk = disk.Disk.create (ofn, idisk.sz, interleave = il)
 odisk.setrwdisk (True)
 dcns = idisk.sz // idisk.dcs
 for i in range (dcns):
 ic = idisk.readclu (i)
 oc = odisk.newclu (i)
 oc[:] = ic
 odisk.flush ()
 idisk.close ()
 odisk.close ()

if __name__ == "__main__":
 main (sys.argv[1:])
 


Sounds good.
But I have to work with what I have:

An 11/73 with:
One serial (console) line
An RX50 booting xxdp
A CQD220 SCSI controller with a DSP5200s attached.
RT11 customer diagnostics A and B

The DSP5200S is formatted and is seen as DU6

One PC running windows 10

There's no Linux systems, no C compilers, emulators or weird hardware 
available.


But I do have a Rainbow which is the console to the 11/73

I just need to write the RT11 disk images I have to RX50 using the Rainbow.

--
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Re: Rainbow Disk Imager


Because I don't have any of those. I'm nearly all DEC here

Rod



On 14/09/2017 17:19, Fred Cisin via cctalk wrote:

On Thu, 14 Sep 2017, Rod Smallwood via cctalk wrote:
  I have a bunch of .dsk RT11 400k image files I need to write to 
RX50 disks so I can boot from them on my 11/73
Somewhere there is a utility that will write the images to RX50 on a 
DEC Rainbow 100 under MS-DOS . Anybody know where to find it?


Just to clarify:
You have some .dsk images of SSDD 96tpi for 11/73.  You want to write 
them to disk.

You are looking for a program running on DEC Rainbow 100 MS-DOS to do it.

Any particular reason that you don't use any of the other systems that 
have hardware capability to do it?


such as:
PBM 1000
Tandy 2000
Eagle II
Toshiba T300
Altos
Canon AS100
IBM PC/JX
Seiko 8610
Televideo TS1603
or IBM PC/AT (5170) with 1.2M




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Rainbow Disk Imager