WTB: Pro380, VAXstation

Ethan> On Thu, Apr 15, 2004 at 05:13:33PM -0400, Paul Koning wrote: Tom> There is a (modified) version of BSD 2.9 that runs on the Tom> Pro350, and is freely available Ethan> Well, the Pro-350 uses an F-11 CPU (same as the 11/23 and Ethan> 11/24), and the Pro-380 uses a J-11 CPU (same as the 11/73). Ethan> The largest architectural difference is that the J-11 supports Ethan> split I&D space. As a result, the Pro-380 should be able to Ethan> load 2.11BSD which, I _think_, already supports the MSCP disk Ethan> controller in the Pro series (that's the nature of the patches Ethan> to 2.9BSD for the Pro-350... adding support for MSCP Ethan> controllers). The PRO disk controller isn't an MSCP controller, not within 100 miles. It's a one sector at a time programmed I/O controller, somewhat on the same level of sophistication as a PC floppy controller. The most obvious difference between a Pro-380 and other J-11 based systems is that the Pro clocks the CPU at 10 MHz and the others use around 18 MHz. The reason is that the Pro system controller ASIC used a synchronous design, so the CPU clock had to be an integer multiple of the bus clock. The bus clock frequency was set at 10 MHz, and the assumption was that Harris would deliver on its promise of a 20 MHz J-11 chip. No such luck -- the best they ever managed was 18 MHz, and that forced the Pro to the next lower integer multiple -- 10 MHz... :-( Another difference is that the Pro-380 has a bunch of stuff on the motherboard that's on option cards in the Pro-350 -- the graphics in particular. And the memory isn't on the CTI bus, it's on a dedicated card. Some vague memory says the graphics has more goodies, but I don't remember. It's all in the manual on bitsavers.org... paul