27 Mar
2006
27 Mar
'06
5:41 p.m.
Jay West wrote:
You wrote....
I (and probably others to with 1970s vintage pdp11s) would like an
online image, much like the 'xxdpv25_rl02.dsk' images already online.
There are lots of DEC diagnostics missing from the v2.2 and v2.5 XXDP
disks, specifically for earlier/obscure machines (eg 11/60 :-() and
peripherals.
I don't think there is such a thing. I have
been searching for PDP-11
diagnostics for several years. The available images: xxdp22 and
xxdp25 seem to be the best thing out there.
I have a disk of xxdp v1.0. If anyone
wants an image of it, I'd be
happy to oblige.
> The "Handbook" was also written in Europe. This makes me think it was
> something created in the field and not supported directly by DEC.
> That makes me think there was no unified diagnostic package, but that
> options had diagnostic tapes or disks and that they were distributed
> on an ad-hoc basis.
When I worked on the 11/60 diagnostics in 1977 or so the diagnostics HAD
to be written to be distributable on paper tape AND be able to run in
the minimum memory configuration, like 8KW or 16KW of core. That's why
there were DQFPA, DQFPB, DQFPC, etc segments.
Diagnostics weren't distributed on an ad-hoc basis, when you bought the
item, you got tape(s) and hardcopy listings. Only later when disks got
big enough and the number*size of diagnostics got large enough did XXDP
media like RL01/RL02 become the standard means (and paper tape readers
were phased out) for binary. I don't know that DEC ever distributed soft
copies of diagnostic listings on disk or tape (now finding that would be
the holy grail at this point).
I'm just shocked diags seem to receive such short
shrift at DEC. I
guess it makes me feel quite fortunate that for HP 2100 & 21MX we have
a complete set of full source listings that exactly match diag
documentation that exactly match the code version on the media. I've
refered to that code many times. Hopefully someday a late full library
of DEC diags will be unearthed with matching source & docs.
Jay