VAXBI (was Re: Yet Another FPGA VAX Discussion)

On Wed, Jul 16, 2014 at 4:12 PM, David Riley <fraveydank at gmail.com> wrote: I think Al just posted something a couple days ago, and I may have some design docs in the basement from when Software Results got a VAXBI license (we made a prototype run of boards - they worked but the market had moved on so we never sold out of that first run). I did the firmware for that product and its driver for VMS from the ground up. It was super-proprietary (and rigidly licensed). You essentially had to work from DEC's PCB template files (they supported multiple design packages IIRC) and add your circuit to the "BI Corner" which they maintained with an iron fist. There's a double-row of VIAs, and you just ran your signals to the right place and the bus area was taken care of for you. There are no "unauthorized" peripherals for the BI that I'm aware of. You *had* to buy BIICs (BI Interface Chips) prototype run, I was able to pick up used 2MB boards from the reseller market for about $50 and pull the BIICs (they were socketed) instead of buying new $350 chips. Between that and "refurbed" (used) RAM and CPUs, I got the manufacturing price down $500 per board from the initial numbers. I have a couple VAXBI COMBOARDs in my 8300 in the basement (along with a few of those 2MB (T1008) boards). Generically, they are built around a 68010 CPU with a 16-bit-32-bit discrete bus adapter (reading/writing 1/4 of the '010 address space triggers a bus read or write including upper/lower word latching) with 2MB of local RAM, a Z8530 serial rigged for sync operation (pins 15 and 17 for external data clock) and 64KB of local ROM. The driver works with the firmware to upload a payload application into RAM, but if one could fit all the code into the ROMs, that functionality could be deprecated. SBI is 11/78x and entirely separate. -ethan