15 Nov
2007
15 Nov
'07
5:54 a.m.
On Wednesday 14 November 2007 20:15, J Blaser wrote:
After a little effort, I think I now have the minimum
boardset
required to fire this baby up. But just to make sure that yours
truly, a complete Unibus and big-iron VAX noob, has it figured
correctly, I wanted to run my configuration by you guys before I
shoot off my right foot (which would, of course, leave me with only a
wrong foot).
If you want some reference information, I assembled information from
other pages, and information I discovered myself while setting up my
11/750, and have it here:
http://computer-refuge.org/compcollect/dec/vax/11750/
I've now got the following installed in the
backplane:
<nothing> in CMI slot 1 (still looking for the optional L0001 FPU)
L0002 (DPM) in CMI slot 2
L0003 (MIC) in CMI slot 3
L0004 (UBI) in CMI slot 4
L0008 (PCS) in CMI slot 5
L0006 (RDM) in CMI slot 6 (optional, I guess, but came with other
boards) <nothing> in CMI slot 7 (I pulled the SI9700 from this slot)
<nothing> in CMI slot 8
<nothing> in CMI slot 9
L0016 (CMC2) in CMI slot 10
M8750 (1MB RAM) in 'extended' slots 11-18 (8MB total)
This sounds reasonable. There are jumpers on the CMI backplane, which
you will need to set appropriately, both to tell the system that you
have an RDM card (though I'd probably just pull it out, but you'll
still want to check that it's set properly), and for the CMI option
slots (7-9). If I recall, all the information necessary should be
printed on labels attached to the steel cover over the backplane,
behind the back door of the VAX. In any case, if it's missing, I have
a photograph of the label, which looks readable enough to me, on my
site, above.
M9202 (Unibus 'joiner') in slots 19 and 20
M7485 (DZ11) in Unibus slot 21
<nothing> in Unibus slot 22
<nothing> in Unibus slot 23
<nothing> in Unibus slot 24
<nothing> in Unibus slot 25
<nothing> in Unibus slot 26
<nothing> in Unibus slot 27
M9313 (Unibus Term) in Unibus slot 28
You will need to have G727 or G7273 grant continuity cards in all of the
empty slots. However, you should be able to do some basic tests
without it, as the UNIBUS is a secondary CPU on the VAX, the processor
will still function even with a messed-up UNIBUS (at least to some
extent). You probably won't get too far in booting anything, though,
with a broken UNIBUS grant chain.
I still don't have any mass storage interfaces (to
support my RA81
and/or x2 Fujitsu SuperEagles...still looking for UDA50, Dilog DU256,
and/or Emulex UD33), but I was hoping that I have enough modules to
start testing the CPU, anyway.
A UDA50 probably will be easier to find, though a 3rd party interface
(as long as it's not SCSI) will probably be cheaper if you can find
one. :)
After reading through the various docs found on
bitsavers.org and
vt100.net/manx it appears that a standard set of TU58 DECtape II
carts were included with each system. Several of these carts
contained CPU and system diagnostics. I'm hoping someone has a set
of these tapes imaged somewhere that I could download and give a try.
I might have some tape images...somewhere. I found them online
somewhere, quite a few years ago, but can't find them anymore. I'm not
sure what I have though, they may be more like VMS standalone backup
tapes, or something else.
Pat
--
Purdue University ITAP/RCAC --- http://www.rcac.purdue.edu/
The Computer Refuge --- http://computer-refuge.org