2 Jun
2018
2 Jun
'18
9:28 a.m.
It was my understanding from using the 730 that there
was limited
(really limited) microcode
enough to load the WCS as the tu58 was a serial device (standard tu58)
and the 730 had to
unpack and stuff the WCS. You need little to do that but far from even
PDP11 instruction set.
The Microcode was loaded was the "what made it a VAX stuff".
I don't think so.
There's an 8085 'console processor' on one of the CPU boards (I am
not talking about the 8085 in the TU58, which is also there). This
processor runs a program from its ROM that talks to the console
port and also to the TU58. It loads the microcode from the TU58
and writes it to the VAX control store RAM, and then starts the
VAX runnng.
I can find no microcode ROMs in the printset, technical manual or
on the PCBs themselves.
-tony