From Innfogra@aol.com Thu Nov  4 16:40:18 1999
From: Innfogra@aol.com
To: test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org
Subject: Xerox D-series workstations
Date: Thu, 04 Nov 1999 16:40:18 +0000
Message-ID: <0.44149835.25536552@aol.com>
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In a message dated 11/3/99 7:49:48 PM Pacific Standard Time, 
schoedel(a)kw.igs.net writes:

> 
>  I've just been fortunate enough to obtain a pair or Xerox D-series
>  machines. One is a 53D (Daybreak? Dove? 6085? 1186?) and the other an
>  8010.
According to  <A HREF="http://home.eznet.net/~heiny/mesa/ident.html">Xerox 
Workstation Spotter's Guide</A> 

The 53D is the Dove or 6085

The 8010 is the Dandelion or T22 & K91

I have had several 53Ds and T22s so I can verify those numbers. I had some 
8010s with a different number but I am not sure it was K91. It seems to me 
that it was different, but this was 7 years ago.

I wish I had kept one of the Dandelions. This was one of my favorite machines.

Paxton

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From schoedel@kw.igs.net Thu Nov  4 20:20:38 1999
From: schoedel@kw.igs.net
To: test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org
Subject: Xerox D-series workstations
Date: Thu, 04 Nov 1999 20:20:38 +0000
Message-ID: <v04210105b447e451d72a@[216.58.99.166]>
In-Reply-To: <0.44149835.25536552@aol.com>
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On 1999/11/04 at 5:40pm -0500, <Innfogra(a)aol.com> wrote:
>I have had several 53Ds and T22s so I can verify those numbers. I had some
>8010s with a different number but I am not sure it was K91. It seems to me
>that it was different, but this was 7 years ago.

This one has T22F on a serial number plate; there are no other obvious
markings.

On 1999/11/04 at 7:40pm +0000, Tony Duell wrote:
>Yes, I think most D-machines do, as did the somewhat related PERQ
>machines (which I know rather more about). This is a really fun feature
>IMHO (I _like_ writing microcode, OK :-)), and is one reason why I
>collect such machines.

Yes; more interesting than the processors I see people building now.

The only device that I know much about *and* that is user-programmable is
the TAAC-1 graphics board for the Sun-3. I've never actually *seen* one,
but I once worked on a compiler for it.

>I'm looking for this as well. Actually I'm looking for any technical info
>on the Daybreak (== anything that _I_ can't work out in 10 minutes of
>looking at the machine :-)).

I suspect you could work out more in 10 minutes than I could in 10 days.
In 10 minutes I could *probably* find the power switch -- if it's not
behind a door.

There appears to be some information on Al Kossow's site
(http://www.spies.com/aek/) in PDF form; I haven't looked at any of it
yet.

>I can teach you PERQ microcode, but although there are similarities, it's
>not going to help that much.

I think I have read something -- a series of Usenet posts? -- that you
wrote about the PERQ. They don't seem to be at all common here; on the
other hand, I didn't expect to come across the Xerox machines either.

On 1999/11/05 at 12:36am +0000, Tony Duell wrote:
>I suppose you could also trace what the fuse is connected to...

One side is straight on the line; the other is connected to a small
transformer on the fuse board. The secondaries lead to the front panel....

-- 
Kevin Schoedel
schoedel(a)kw.igs.net

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From ard@p850ug1.demon.co.uk Fri Nov  5 13:00:14 1999
From: ard@p850ug1.demon.co.uk
To: test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org
Subject: Xerox D-series workstations
Date: Fri, 05 Nov 1999 13:00:14 +0000
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From schoedel@kw.igs.net Fri Nov  5 17:19:00 1999
From: schoedel@kw.igs.net
To: test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org
Subject: Xerox D-series workstations
Date: Fri, 05 Nov 1999 17:19:00 +0000
Message-ID: <382366080.21fa@diamond.archelon.com.archelon.com>
In-Reply-To: <m11joav-000IyNC@p850ug1>
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In article <m11joav-000IyNC(a)p850ug1>, ard(a)p850ug1.demon.co.uk (Tony Duell)
wrote:
>[...]
>The older PERQs were totally user-microprogrammable. You got the 
>assembler and the 'placer' with the OS distribution IIRC. And there was 
>some documentation in the manual. Mind you, the PERQ OS manual always 
>struck me as being a quick-reference guide for people who knew the system 
>-- a lot of information is either missing or hidden.

In my (commerical) experience more often missing than hidden. Vital
details noted only in the margin of a single copy of the manual, scribbled
after a telephone conversation with the designer, because no one ever
thought to, or had time to, document them fully. Of course some things
are hidden *as well*, but at least things which are merely hidden might
eventually be released.

>The PERQ 3a (aka AGW3300) had a 68020 in it (:-(, not microprogrammable). 
>But there was a graphics processor built from 2 29116 'ALUs', one for the 
>data path and one to calaculate addresses. That was user 
>microprogrammable, although AFAIK, tools for programming it were never 
>available.

I'm in an almost uniquely fortunate position of being able to generate
usable microprogramming tools with very little effort.

>> I suspect you could work out more in 10 minutes than I could in 10 days.
>> In 10 minutes I could *probably* find the power switch -- if it's not
>> behind a door.
>
>You exagerate, I think :-)

Only slightly. I have a software background and while I can (in principle)
understand a processor down to the gate level, I have only a very vague
idea of how things work electrically. I hope to remedy that this winter.

>Seriously, I'm fed up with 'technical' manuals that contain no 
>schematics, no pinouts, no register bit allocations, etc. That's _not_ a 
>technical manual!

Sometimes it's even worse. Try explaining to a client that no, we
really *can't* write an assembler if they want to keep the instruction
encodings secret.

The previously-mentioned manual for this machine appears to be an
architecture manual rather than a hardware manual as such (although,
since it's in the form of a set of scans, I haven't had time to read
much beyond the table of contents yet), so it isn't any help for this
problem. Both it and the Daybreak manual do appear to document the
microinstructions, though.

>> >I suppose you could also trace what the fuse is connected to...
>> 
>> One side is straight on the line; the other is connected to a small
>> transformer on the fuse board. The secondaries lead to the front panel....
>
>Well, considering the 1A fuse didn't blow instantly, I would suspect a 
>short in the load on the secondary side of the transformer. Time to 
>disconnect the secondaries and see if a 0.25A fuse holds. If it does, 
>reconnect the secondareis one at a time until the fuse blows and then 
>start tracing what's shorted. It may be as simple as a shorted rectifier 
>or smoothing capacitor (we can always hope :-))

The secondary end doesn't appear to be shorted, and the fuse blows
anyway :-(  Unless I've made a mistake, things look pretty simple
(where + is a connection and -|- is not):

  L----Fi----+---+--switch------1(| t |)5--+----fuse2---A  front
120V   lt    |   +--fuse1----+--2(| r |)6--|--+---------B  panel
  N----er--+-|---------------|--3(| n |)7--+  |
           | |               +--4(| s |)8-----+
          other

  fuse1  = 1/4 A 250V
  fuse2  = 3/4 A 250V
  switch = (part of) the main power switch.
  trns   = "DALE IPL-2329-25 105P80342 8445"; properties not marked.

Fuse1 is the one that blows instantly. AB leads to the front panel only.
With the power switch off, and the front panel disconnected (i.e. no
load except the meter), a 1A fuse at fuse1 lasts about two seconds,
during which time I measure about 15V across AB.

-- 
Kevin Schoedel
schoedel(a)kw.igs.net

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From ard@p850ug1.demon.co.uk Fri Nov  5 18:20:12 1999
From: ard@p850ug1.demon.co.uk
To: test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org
Subject: Xerox D-series workstations
Date: Fri, 05 Nov 1999 18:20:12 +0000
Message-ID: <m11jtaZ-000IyHC@p850ug1>
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From schoedel@kw.igs.net Fri Nov  5 20:28:48 1999
From: schoedel@kw.igs.net
To: test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org
Subject: Xerox D-series workstations
Date: Fri, 05 Nov 1999 20:28:48 +0000
Message-ID: <v0421010ab4493926ee26@[216.58.99.166]>
In-Reply-To: <m11jtaZ-000IyHC@p850ug1>
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On 1999/11/06 at 12:20am +0000, Tony Duell wrote:
>Well, writing microcode assemblers (and I prefer to work in assembler
>rather than anything higher) is not too hard.

I'll time myself once I find the encodings :-)

>Then of course there's the problem of getting the machine to load the new
>microcode, of getting the OS to correctly use it, etc. It's not a trivial
>job, even when you can write microcode that makes sense.

For the Daybreak, that might be the hardest part. I understand the 80186
loads it on boot, but how or whether one might make things happen in a
running system I don't (yet:-) know.

>It's a pity I can't read .pdf files.... One day I'll figure out how at
>least to handle ones that are scanned images (which shouldn't be too
>hard...).

I think I can find a way to convert them en masse to another format. They
total some 65M, however, so if as I assume you are connecting by phone
(you seem to start posting at 6pm...) you might not want to download the
entire set. If you wish, I'm sure I'd be able to get a copy to you on
CD-ROM or paper at some point in the next few months.

>Knowing the format of the Daybreak microinstruction (and
>whether the sequencer chip is custom as I suspect) would be a great help
>here.

That much only requires that I find and read the relevant sections, which
I'll most likely do this weekend.

>Are you _absolutely_ sure about those connections? I assume you've
>checked them visually, and not relied on continuity tests (remember the
>transformer might be shorted).

I was wrong, of course. I had done it visually, but missed a trace under
the body of the transformer, *and* mis-oriented the switch leads when I
checked them. The wiring is actually absolutely straightforward:

   N------------+--1(| t |)5--+----fuse2--A  front
   L--fuse1--+--|--2(| r |)6--|--+--------B  panel
             |  +--3(| n |)7--+  |
             +-----4(| s |)8-----+

(Sigh. I'm still at the point where I can't tell that obviously wrong
things are wrong.)  This seems to rule out everything but the transformer
:-(

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From ard@p850ug1.demon.co.uk Sat Nov  6 13:15:18 1999
From: ard@p850ug1.demon.co.uk
To: test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org
Subject: Xerox D-series workstations
Date: Sat, 06 Nov 1999 13:15:18 +0000
Message-ID: <m11kBJ3-000IyJC@p850ug1>
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From donm@cts.com Sat Nov  6 17:19:46 1999
From: donm@cts.com
To: test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org
Subject: Xerox D-series workstations
Date: Sat, 06 Nov 1999 17:19:46 +0000
Message-ID: <Pine.SCO.4.05.9911061511500.29997-100000@crash.cts.com>
In-Reply-To: <m11kBJ3-000IyJC@p850ug1>
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On Sat, 6 Nov 1999, Tony Duell wrote:

________O/_______
        O\	
> I am sending this to the list, because I want to make a small point. 
> Obviously I like old computers. And I don't mind receiving e-mail 
> (questions or help) relating to such machines -- that's why I am here ;-).
________O/_______
        O\	
> [Transformer that blows fuses]
> 
> > >Are you _absolutely_ sure about those connections? I assume you've
> > >checked them visually, and not relied on continuity tests (remember the
> > >transformer might be shorted).
> > 
> > I was wrong, of course. I had done it visually, but missed a trace under
> 
> Don't worry about it.... We all make mistakes, me more than most.
> 
> The good thing is that now we know what's going on, and it makes sense. 
> So we can go forwards...
> 
> > the body of the transformer, *and* mis-oriented the switch leads when I
> > checked them. The wiring is actually absolutely straightforward:
> > 
> >    N------------+--1(| t |)5--+----fuse2--A  front
> >    L--fuse1--+--|--2(| r |)6--|--+--------B  panel
> >              |  +--3(| n |)7--+  |
> >              +-----4(| s |)8-----+
> 
> 
> OK, this makes a lot of sense. I think it's safe to assume that there are 
> 2 primary windings, which are connected in parallel for 120V mains (and I 
> would guess in series for 240V mains -- this is a very common setup). 
> And 2 identical secondaries, also in parallel. And the transformer is 
> always energised, which explains why the fuse blows when you plug the 
> machine in (without having to turn the machine on)
> 
> 
> > (Sigh. I'm still at the point where I can't tell that obviously wrong
> > things are wrong.)  This seems to rule out everything but the transformer
> > :-(
> 
> If fuse 1 blows even with A and B disconnected, then it's very likely 
> that the transformer has shorted turns. Still, all is not lost. There are 
> ways to make some likely guesses as to what the transformer should be.

Would it not, perhaps, be a good check to disconnect the paralleled
windings and check them out individually to determine whether the two
input or output windings might be bucking instead of properly
paralleled.  Resistance checks might also indicate if there were shorted
windings in one.  

						 - don
 
> Firstly look at the physical size of the transformer and compare it with 
> ones in catalogues. From the fact that it's a PCB mounting unit, I am 
> going to guess at 3VA or 6VA. Something around that, anyway.
> 
> Then remember that fuse2 is a 3/4A fuse, so the total secondary current 
> is <3/4A. If it's a 6VA transformer, that's beginning to sound like a 12V 
> 0.5A unit or something close to that.
> 
> Look at what it's connected to. If it goes to a rectifier/capacitor 
> arrangement, what's the working voltage of the capacitor. That puts an 
> upper limit on the secondary voltage. Remember, of course, that the peak 
> voltage on the output of a rectifier = the _peak_ AC input voltage, which 
> is sqrt(2) times the RMS voltage.
> 
> If all else fails, dismantle the old transformer, unwind the wire, and 
> count the turns. Then work out the turns ratio between primary and 
> secondary. Although there will be more turns on the secondary than you 
> might expect (to compensate for voltage drop when you start drawing 
> current), this will give a good idea of the expected voltage. Given that, 
> it's easy to get a replacement transformer.
> 
> -tony
> 
> 

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From ard@p850ug1.demon.co.uk Sat Nov  6 17:47:54 1999
From: ard@p850ug1.demon.co.uk
To: test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org
Subject: Xerox D-series workstations
Date: Sat, 06 Nov 1999 17:47:54 +0000
Message-ID: <m11kFYr-000IyJC@p850ug1>
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From schoedel@kw.igs.net Mon Nov  8 00:58:39 1999
From: schoedel@kw.igs.net
To: test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org
Subject: Xerox D-series workstations
Date: Mon, 08 Nov 1999 00:58:39 +0000
Message-ID: <v04210102b44c068487bc@[216.58.99.181]>
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At 7:19pm -0600 1999/11/07, Mitch Wright wrote:
> Somewhere you mentioned the company you work for made ucode compilers,
>assemblers. Anything left of these products laying around?

Depends what you mean by "laying around". We're still using the same
basic software (with improvements over the years, of course). Some
clients have rights to distribute them (in binary form) on their own
terms, so there may be some available somewhere, but I don't know.
Unfortunately I am stuck with enough NDAs that I'm not even sure which
past example I could name.

>Congrats on finding the Xerox machines, I've given up all hope of
>getting one.

Purely out of curiosity (and not because I intend to sell mine; I don't)
I checked ebay; someone sold a Daybreak for about $100 recently. Compared
to ebay prices of other things, this suggests they are not *too* rare. I
don't even want to *think* about how much I could sell the 8010 for
there, if I were to invoke the "S" word (even though mine has probably
always run Lisp, and is, by its memory and disk, clearly a late instance
as well). Don't tell me; I want to keep it :-)

A co-worker picked up the other of the two available Daybreaks; if he
gets tired of it, I'll let him know you might be interested.

On 1999/11/06 at 7:15pm +0000, Tony Duell wrote:
>But I've heard that the Daybreak uses the 80186 to load the control store
>at boot time. Whether it can load the control store once the machine has
>booted, or whether you have to rewrite the entire microcode and then
>reboot the machine (Ouch! I hope not), I don't know.

Part of the manual I've read mentions that the 80186 loads the control
store during booting "and debugging". I haven't yet seen how; I suspect
the details are not in any manual I have.

>Yes, I am on a dial-up connection, using an ancient 14k4 bps modem. And I
>generally start after 18:00, since that's when phonecalls become a little
>cheaper in the UK (is that the case elsewhere?)

In most of North America, a flat line charge includes unlimited local
calls; that's why people here throw around binaries with abandon.

>[....]  I know I'm
>missing the keyboard and mouse (I picked it up cheap at a radio rally
>(hamfest), so I am not complaining). So I'll have to figure out the
>interface for those as well....

"The keyboard/interface uses the receive half of the i8251A interface
chip" suggests it's one-way communication.  "... receive from the
keyboard as a differential signal pair by a 75176A receiver chip."  I
don't know; does this imply RS232-compatible levels?  "... asynchronous
serial interface with a data rate of 9600bps". I do not see the protocol
documented, but by the time you get around to your machine, I should be
able to hang my keyboard and mouse on some serial port and/or logic
analyzer to work it out.

>If fuse 1 blows even with A and B disconnected, then it's very likely
>that the transformer has shorted turns.

After removing the transformer, I believe I've confirmed shorted turns on
one half of the primary. Assuming no shorts in the secondaries, would
this not mean that the voltage I measured (15V) is an upper bound on the
correct voltage?

[moved:]
>If all else fails, dismantle the old transformer, unwind the wire, and
>count the turns.

I'm not sure I can do this accurately enough; the outermost layers seem
inextricably stuck in some hard resin-ish stuff.

>Still, all is not lost. There are
>ways to make some likely guesses as to what the transformer should be.

It appears to drive half of the front panel board -- the non-LED part.
Now, there's a 5V regulator (SG340K-5) there. The output is clearly Vcc
for the TTL on this half. The ground is clearly GND for the TTL and is
connected to one line from the secondary. The input of the regulator -- I
might be wrong again but I've double-checked -- is connected to the other
line of the secondary through a single diode (in other words, it seems to
be a half-wave); there's a 1000uF to ground.

So, one of the things I need to do is keep the regulator happy, which
seems straightforward; the question is whether the rest of the circuit
imposes tighter constraints. I can't easily trace it all because some
traces are hidden by the soldered-in TTL or the capacitor glued across
vital parts of the back of the board, so I'm trying to go by what I can
see and by considering why it's there. I can only think of two reasons
why this might need AC rather than just using the main power supply. It
might be a power-fail indicator, but I think that's implausible; since
the machine has semiconductor memory and power-hungry disks, there's
nothing it could *do* on power fail. And it does not seem consistent with
the parts on the board. But if this *were* the case, it would presumably
tightly constrain the required secondary voltage.

The other possibility I can think of is that it's a line-based
clock/timer. There are further diodes and resistors feeding (in a manner
I can't fully trace) a pulse generator (74123) whose output appears on
the cable from the front panel to the I/O board, and a trigger/inverter
(7414) which, I think, drives counters (74LS163) leading to a flip/flop
(74LS74) whose output likewise appears on the cable. Does this sound
plausible? And would it impose any tight constraints on the transformer
output?

-- 
Kevin Schoedel
schoedel(a)kw.igs.net

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From eric@brouhaha.com Mon Nov  8 02:03:49 1999
From: eric@brouhaha.com
To: test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org
Subject: Xerox D-series workstations
Date: Mon, 08 Nov 1999 02:03:49 +0000
Message-ID: <19991108080349.24472.qmail@brouhaha.com>
In-Reply-To: <v04210102b44c068487bc@[216.58.99.181]>
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Kevin Schoedel <schoedel(a)kw.igs.net> wrote:
> "The keyboard/interface uses the receive half of the i8251A interface
> chip" suggests it's one-way communication.  "... receive from the
> keyboard as a differential signal pair by a 75176A receiver chip."  I
> don't know; does this imply RS232-compatible levels?

No, it's an EIA-422 differential pair.  Not really even close to EIA-232,
although it wouldn't take too much circuitry to convert.  If you had a
device with an EIA-232 output that you wanted to hook up to the 6085
keyboard port, you'd just need an EIA-232 receiver section from a part
such as a MAX232, and an EIA-422 (or EIA-485) driver section from a part
like a 75176 or MC3487.

> "... asynchronous
> serial interface with a data rate of 9600bps". I do not see the protocol
> documented, but by the time you get around to your machine, I should be
> able to hang my keyboard and mouse on some serial port and/or logic
> analyzer to work it out.

If I had to hazard a guess, I'd suspect that it sends non-ASCII keycodes,
with a separate make and break code for each key.

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From ard@p850ug1.demon.co.uk Mon Nov  8 14:00:01 1999
From: ard@p850ug1.demon.co.uk
To: test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org
Subject: Xerox D-series workstations
Date: Mon, 08 Nov 1999 14:00:01 +0000
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From ard@p850ug1.demon.co.uk Mon Nov  8 14:36:17 1999
From: ard@p850ug1.demon.co.uk
To: test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org
Subject: Xerox D-series workstations
Date: Mon, 08 Nov 1999 14:36:17 +0000
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From schoedel@kw.igs.net Mon Nov  8 19:27:43 1999
From: schoedel@kw.igs.net
To: test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org
Subject: Xerox D-series workstations
Date: Mon, 08 Nov 1999 19:27:43 +0000
Message-ID: <v04210106b44d159d3a68@[216.58.99.181]>
In-Reply-To: <m11kuxR-000IyPC@p850ug1>
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On 1999/11/08 at 8:00pm +0000, Tony Duell wrote:
>I paid \pounds 10.00 for mine (machine + monitor + cartridge tape drive +
>floppy drive) at a radio rally (hamfest). No idea if it works or not, of
>course, but I was _very_ happy with that price.

I actually paid more for mine, because it looks too much like a modern
PC, and *less* for the 8010, because it's obviously too old to be good
for anything.

>[....]
>I wanted it to compare against the PERQs. From what I can see from
>glancing at the Daybreak there are similarities.

I still owe a summary of the microinstructions; unfortunately my 'main'
machine is a 'classic' in its own right (i.e. it's old) and one of its
disks, containing my notes, suddenly and catastrophically failed
yesterday.

Here is a very brief summary:
 00 - 03  rA   2901 register number
 04 - 07  rB   2901 register number
 08 - 10  aS   2901 alu sources (A,Q; A,B; 0,Q; 0,B; 0A, D,A; D,Q; D,0)
 11 - 13  aF   2901 alu op; the table in the manual is obviously botched
 14 - 15  aD   2901 destination (values for rB, Q, Y bus)
 16 - 19  Cin,enU,mem	carry in; memory op (cycle dependent); U register op
 20 - 23  fS   determines interpretation of fY and fZ fields
 24 - 27  fX   misc operations (mostly seq call/ret, push/pop)
 28 - 31  fY   misc, encoded per fS, includes branch ops, or immediate
constant
 32 - 35  fZ   misc, encoded per fS, or immediate constant
 36 - 47  INIA immediate next address

The next address is the INIA field optionally ORed with bits determined
by branch ops in the previous instruction.

Cycles are grouped in "clicks" of three cycles (c1, c2, c3) which
determine the interpretation of the 'mem' bit: address, read, write. Five
clicks form a "round". There are multiple (presumably six)
microinstruction pointers ("tasks"), corresponding to clicks in a round.
Each click in a round is associated permanently with and I/O service
routine; during any particular click, either that I/O routine executes
(if the device so requests) or else the macroinstruction interpreter
executes.

Besides the 2901 R registers, there is a 16 x 8-bit RH register set,
grouped with the corresponding R registers to form memory addresses.
There is also a 256-word external register set U, 16 words of which can
be quickly accessed by a stack pointer.

The large gate array on the CPU board is the sequencer/decoder; the
smaller one is the bus controller.

>Yes, I know the Daybreak is by far the most common D-machine, but that
>doesn't mean it's not worth saving. And it's the only D-machine I'm
>likely to find.

I didn't mean to suggest they wouldn't be worth saving. I'd never pass
over a non- commodity-microprocessor machine at any tolerable price.
(I've even bought uninteresting machines (cheaply) from that same source
just to make sure that they know that 'big, old' computers are *saleable*
and should not be scrapped. Anyone want three Sun 3/160's?)

>Incidentally, sorting out Xerox stuff is made harder because many of the
>ICs are house-coded with 733W... numbers. Sometimes you can guess the
>equivalents. But if anyone has a cross-reference list....

On mine, there are *very* few parts that have 733 numbers only. Nearly
all have only obviously generic numbers (e.g. 74LSxx), or both generic
and house numbers. The schematics appear to use only generic numbers.

>[....]
>OK, I've pulled the I/O processor from my machine and done a little
>looking (FWIW, this is not 'trivial' info, as it took me more than 10
>minutes to figure out :-))...

The documents contain some schematics, but in their current form (PDF
bitmaps) it's really difficult to find anything in particular. Once I'm
able to print them it should be possible to find things more easily.

>[....]
>The pinout of the keyboard connector (a DE-9) seems to be :
>
>1 A (One differential I/O signal from the 75176)
>2 B (the other one)
>3 Ground
>4 +5V
>5 Open collector output, driven by another bit of a '273??

Keyboard reset.

>6 +5V
>7 Ground

"unused"

>8 High-current-ish transistor output. Maybe to drive a speaker

Yes.

>9 Open collector output (from a '06). Input to this driver from TxD of
>  the 8251?

Can't find it.

Noted on the schematic: 1 start bit, 8 data, 1 stop; 1 to 3 bytes of
keyboard/mouse data per event.

>>From what I remember, the keyboard connector links to a PCB in the stand
>of the monitor that has a DIN socket for the actual keyboard and also
>links to the speaker. Unfortunately, the monitor is not easy to get to at
>the moment, so I can't quickly check this, or look at pinouts, etc. One
>day...

This is probably somewhere in the document as well, but I don't see it.

>[....]
>You know, I'd almost be inclined to try a 9V or 12V transformer and see
>what happens...

I'll probably try that next. The machine ran for a few seconds on my
initial trial (before the first fuse blew), when there obviously was
already a problem, which suggests that the voltage is not too terribly
critical.
-- 
Kevin Schoedel
schoedel(a)kw.igs.net

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From ard@p850ug1.demon.co.uk Mon Nov  8 20:16:36 1999
From: ard@p850ug1.demon.co.uk
To: test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org
Subject: Xerox D-series workstations
Date: Mon, 08 Nov 1999 20:16:36 +0000
Message-ID: <m11l0ps-000IyHC@p850ug1>
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From schoedel@kw.igs.net Mon Nov  8 21:34:15 1999
From: schoedel@kw.igs.net
To: test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org
Subject: Xerox D-series workstations
Date: Mon, 08 Nov 1999 21:34:15 +0000
Message-ID: <v04210107b44d3df9b5fb@[216.58.99.181]>
In-Reply-To: <m11l0ps-000IyHC@p850ug1>
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On 1999/11/09 at 2:16am +0000, Tony Duell wrote:
>Ouch... This is starting to sound complicated...

I think it ranks as the second most complicated machine I've seen. Most
I've seen are much more like the PERQ in spirit: alu, registers, simple
sequencer, straightforward muxes.

>[...]
>I'd read somewhere that the Daybreak CPU was all standard chips. This had
>confused me, because I couldn't figure out what on earth these 2 chips
>were. I'd initially assumed they were custom gate arrays -- looks like I
>was right :-(

The internals don't appear to be documented in anything I've seen so far.

>[...]
>You are very lucky. My machine is almost all 733 numbers :-(. I think we
>should attempt to compile a cross-reference.

I'll put it on my list of things to do when my brain isn't working.
Should be done soon....

>You have schematics??? How complete? And how on earth do I get my hands
>on them ?

They're among the PDF files from Al Kossow's site. TechRef_b?_???.pdf and
IOPschem.pdf at least contain schematics; I don't know how complete.

>I am going to have to find out a way to print PDF files.....

Ghostscript appears to read the files fine and ought to be able to save
the contents in Postscript or other form. If you have no better means,
I'll eventually send you a printed copy.

-- 
Kevin Schoedel
schoedel(a)kw.igs.net

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From ard@p850ug1.demon.co.uk Tue Nov  9 13:18:35 1999
From: ard@p850ug1.demon.co.uk
To: test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org
Subject: Xerox D-series workstations
Date: Tue, 09 Nov 1999 13:18:35 +0000
Message-ID: <m11lGms-000IyQC@p850ug1>
In-Reply-To: <v04210107b44d3df9b5fb@[216.58.99.181]>
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From schoedel@kw.igs.net Tue Nov  9 20:53:04 1999
From: schoedel@kw.igs.net
To: test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org
Subject: Xerox D-series workstations
Date: Tue, 09 Nov 1999 20:53:04 +0000
Message-ID: <v0421010cb44e87a32b88@[216.58.99.181]>
In-Reply-To: <m11lGms-000IyQC@p850ug1>
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On 1999/11/09 at 7:18pm +0000, Tony Duell wrote:
>And I've over-simplified the PERQ. Believe me, it's _not_ that simple
>when you really start looking at it.

That's OK; I over-simplified the Daybreak :-)  Some of the operations are
weird, and only a fraction of encodable operations actually work, due to
timing constraints. I don't fully understand it yet; I'll have to print
the documents first.

>[....]
>The worst mistake they ever made was to use the 2910. Oh, it's a fine
>chip _but_ you can't extend the address width easily. So on the 16K
>board, where they needed a 14 bit control store address, they had a '2
>bit kludge'.

Hmm. The Daybreak has 8K control store, but only 12 address bits;
everything I've read so far only mentions 12 bit addresses.

>Then there's the problem of loading the control store. The _only_ device
>that can address the control store is the 2910. So there's a problem in
>actually loading it -- how on earth do you specify the address.

This reminds of a device I once worked on, made by a company whose name
you'd recognize. The part was *almost* a complete processor; it had a
sequencer, ALU, registers, etc. but didn't quite nail down the
instruction set. The manufacturer had designed an evaluation board; I was
evidently the first person to try to program it. They had taken an
extreme RISC approach, providing only one addressing mode: indirect
through a register. The only way to get an arbitrary address into a
register was, of course, to load it from an address in a register....
They changed the design.

>BTW, does the Daybreak have any kind of grpahics processor? I'd wondered
>if it was one of the gate arrays on the memory board.

I haven't really looked at it yet. I think two of the gate arrays are
involved, but I think it's just a dumb frame buffer.

>Looking again, my machine seems to have mostly standard TTL number chips
>on the CPU and memory boards and mostly 733W numbers on the IOP board.
>Very few chips have both numbers :-(

OK. Mine have about 10% 733 only, 60% standard numbers only, and 30%
both, but naturally the same parts appear repeatedly. It seems that
"leading" zeroes (after the W) don't matter. Here are the matching
numbers from the Daybreak boards:

733W 0098	75189
733W 0318	74S00
733W 0319	74S04
733W 0321	74S260
733W 0339	7414
733W 0341	74279
733W 0351	74S257
733W 1523	74S189
733W 1550	AM27S07DC
733W 1606	74S10
733W 1611	74S08
733W 1616	74S138
733W 1619	74S20
733W 1620	74S64
733W 1621	74S51
733W 1624	74S138
733W 1625	74LS240
733W 1626	74LS244
733W 1630	74S175
733W 1633	74S240
733W 1634	74S241
733W 1638	74S280
733W 1640	74S374
733W 1643	74S02
733W 1644	74S11
733W 1646	74S32
733W 1647	74S38
733W 1648	74S86
733W 1652	74S157
733W 1663	74LS393
733W 1675	74LS74
733W 1676	74LS191
733W 1682	10124
733W 1698	74LS374
733W 1699	74S373
733W 1747	74LS259B
733W 1770	74LS163
733W 1771	74S74
733W 2136	74S37
733W 2137	74S151
733W 2369	MCA1300PKG/E5
733W 2380	MCA1300PLM/E4
733W 2538	CY7C122-25PC
733W 2550	C67402J
733W 2552	MK4501N-12
733W 3042	AM2901CPC

I might have missed some, there might be errors here, and I haven't
looked at the Dandelion boards.

-- 
Kevin Schoedel
schoedel(a)kw.igs.net

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From ard@p850ug1.demon.co.uk Tue Nov  9 21:15:11 1999
From: ard@p850ug1.demon.co.uk
To: test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org
Subject: Xerox D-series workstations
Date: Tue, 09 Nov 1999 21:15:11 +0000
Message-ID: <m11lOE7-000IyHC@p850ug1>
In-Reply-To: <v0421010cb44e87a32b88@[216.58.99.181]>
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