Well, it's been a long time project, but I'm happy to finally announce a
more public initial release of TCP/IP for RSX-11M-PLUS.
This is the result of over 20 years of development. Needless to say,
I've been doing a lot of things over the years, and this code have been
through four reimplementations over the years.
What I now release is something that I believe is a nice and useful
piece of software. I am aware of the fact that most people do not use
these machines any longer, but if someone actually wants to talk to me
about support for this or other RSX software, let me know.
Also, feel free to spread this information to anyone who might be
interested, anywhere.
So - what is in this release?
It is a complete implementation of ARP, IP, UDP, and TCP for
RSX-11M-PLUS. It has been tested on RSX-11M-PLUS V4.6, but should work
on any V4 release. There might be some small tweaks or fixes required,
but nothing major.
It do require a system with split I/D-space, or else at least the TCP
part will not fit.
For Unibus machines, it should be possible to run without any additional
software except what is in a base RSX distribution.
For Q-bus machines, DECnet is required for ethernet networking.
The TCP/IP stack can co-exist with DECnet.
Some utilities also utilize RMS for file access.
A bunch of tools, utilities and libraries are also included. These include:
. IFCONFIG network configuration tool.
. NETSTAT network information tool.
. PING
. TRACEROUTE
. DNS client
. FTP daemon
. FTP client
. HTTP server
. TELNET client (rudimentary)
. TFTP client
. TFTP server
. INET server that can do SINK, ECHO, DAYTIME, QUOTE, and IDENT
. NTP client
. LPR client that sits in the queue manager (rudimentary)
. FORTRAN-77 library
. BASIC+2 library
. PDP-11 C library
The implementation fulfills most of the requirements put forth in RFC
1122. There are a few limitations because of restrictions in the PDP-11,
but none of them should really cause any problems.
Documentation is still on the thin side, but example configs are also
provided, along with installation scripts.
A bunch of test programs and example programs are also included, as well
as the sources of all tools and libraries.
The TCP/IP stack itself only comes in binary form.
All tools are also included precompiled in the distribution, so an
installation only have to build the stack itself for your system, and
then you should be ready to go.
The API only have a slight resemblance to the Unix sockets API. However,
if someone sits down to write code to use TCP/IP under RSX, I'm sure
they will discover that it is extremely easy to use the libraries, or
the basic functions.
The TCP/IP implementation is mostly written as device drivers. This also
have some other interesting implications, such as it is possible to
access TCP as a normal file. You can, for instance do something similar
to the Unix netcat command by issuing the MCR command:
> PIP TI:=TC:"foo.com";4711
which would open a connection to foo.com, on port 4711, and any data
sent from that machine will be shown on the terminal.
The resources used by TCP/IP are modest. A memory area (size selectable
at generation/startup) is used internally. The amount of memory in the
private pool limits the amount of data that can be buffered. Normal pool
is used in a small quantity for each TCP port that is open.
People are welcome to play around with this, and make improvements.
Contributions of code is most welcome.
There are still lots of things to do. The programs marked as rudimentary
should be rewritten.
The most obvious thing still missing is a telnet daemon, which probably
is my next step.
However, the reason for now announcing the release is that it can
finally be distributed natively from an RSX host.
The main locations to download the TCP/IP for RSX are:
Madame.Update.UU.SE (anonymous ftp).
This is one of my development systems for this software. It runs under
E11, and if things are down, I blame E11. :-)
When connected, you are already in the right directory. There is both an
RL02 disk image there, which can be downloaded by anyone. If you happen
to have an RSX system which you are conneting from, you can also try
getting the BQTCP.TAP tape image. Such an image will not transport
cleanly to a non-RSX system, however. Sorry.
ftp.Update.UU.SE (anonymous ftp) - /pub/pdp11/rsx/tcpip
The disk image is normally duplicated to ftp.update.uu.se as well, so
the same file can be found there.
I hope some people will find this useful/amusing. :-)
Johnny Billquist
--
Johnny Billquist || "I'm on a bus
|| on a psychedelic trip
email: bqt at softjar.se || Reading murder books
pdp is alive! || tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol
?
The BBC Microcomputer System (or BBC Micro) was an innovative machine
back in the early 1980?s. One feature that impressed reviewers was a
?tube? interface that allowed the machine to become an I/O processor
for an additional CPU. When the onboard 6502 became too slow, it could
become a slave to a Z-80 or even an ARM processor. The bus was
actually useful for any high-speed device, but its purpose was to add
new processors, a feature Byte magazine called ?innovative.?
[Hoglet67] has released a very interesting set of FPGA designs that
allows a small board sporting a Xilinx Spartan 3 to add a 6502, a Z80,
a 6809, or a PDP/11 to a BBC Micro via the tube interface. There?s
something satisfying about a classic computer acting as an I/O slave
to a fairly modern FPGA that implements an even older PDP/11.
?
http://hackaday.com/2015/10/03/vintage-bbc-computer-gets-fpga-buddies/
--
Liam Proven ? Profile: http://lproven.livejournal.com/profile
Email: lproven at cix.co.uk ? GMail/G+/Twitter/Flickr/Facebook: lproven
MSN: lproven at hotmail.com ? Skype/AIM/Yahoo/LinkedIn: liamproven
Cell/Mobiles: +44 7939-087884 (UK) ? +420 702 829 053 (?R)
I found a company selling new 8" 32-sector hard sector floppies.
http://www.athana.com/html/diskette.html Item # 47-0801
They want $150 per box of 10. That's a pretty hefty pricetag... but in the
absence of other suppliers I may just have to break down and buy a box from
them.
J
Hi there,
I've been wanting to get a nice serial terminal to use with my old systems (mostly UNIX) for a while now, but I haven't managed to find anything locally.
Over the past few years I've been to thrifts, garage sales, surplus shops... But I haven't found any. This sort of surprises me, as Toronto isn't a small town.
Is there anybody around the Toronto area that has a few extra dumb terminals lying around, or does anybody know of a good source for them around the Toronto area?
Thanks
-Brian
Hi, all. I'm looking for information on slang terms with the word "farm"
in them, relating to computaters; especially the origins of such terms.
I've known "cube farm" (a bunch of cubicles where office workers work)
and "render farm" (a cluster of computers used for graphics rendering in
parallel) for a long time, but just recently I found a reference to
"link farm" as meaning "an incremental backup consisting mostly of links
(most likely hard links) to the relevant files in the preceding
iteration of the backup"; but this page
<http://onlineslangdictionary.com/meaning-definition-of/link-farm> says
"a website with little or no content, consisting of mostly (or entirely)
links to other websites."
So, does anyone know what the first such "farm" slang term was, and when
and where it originated? And how about other terms with "farm" in them?
(I came across a new one the other day, but of course I've forgotten it
now.)
--
Eric Christopherson
Hello.
Just wondering if any one has any experience setting up an ETOS system on a
PDP-8?
I've got most of it working, including adding a second terminal, but can't
for the life of me figure out the process on making a second drive available
to the users once we are in ETOS timesharing.
According to the system managers manual, it's a combination of Lookup and
assign.
Cheers, Joe
Word comes in that there is a number of "cartons" of Sun 4 and HP QIC
tapes in the pile, which I'm hoping may be install media. Bad news is
that it is QIC and in the place it is in. Good news is that it surfaced
at all.
I will see if Al or someone can image them if they are of interest. The
HP tapes may just be brand names and not software, unknown at this
time. Also there are some half inch 9 and 7 track tapes in the pile.
The dig also turned up Sunsoft manual sets, which are promising as far
as the 4/260 is concerned. Suggests that the software and manuals are
for that system and not another.
Once I get an inventory of the tapes, I'd appreciate any updates as to
whether they are already imaged and saved somewhere.
thanks
Jim
> From: Diane Bruce
>> There was a version on the V6 PDP11 Unix at MIT; not sure if that was
>> a local port, or one we picked up from somewhere else.
> There was a hack for PDP11 Unix which added RT-11 compatibility
> syscalls to the kernel. (UofT Spencer)
The PDP-11 Unix machines are Tech Sq definitely did not have that; it would
have run on standard Unix (although it may have included an RT11 emulator in
the application - I don't at the moment have access to all that MIT stuff -
yet!)
Noel
> From: Ben Franchuk
> Did advent run under PDP11 unix?
There was a version on the V6 PDP11 Unix at MIT; not sure if that was a local
port, or one we picked up from somewhere else.
Noel
there is a cool video in the hackaday link below
http://hackaday.com/2015/10/19/repairing-55000-of-vintage-core-memory/?utm_…
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