31 Oct
2019
31 Oct
'19
5:41 p.m.
On Oct 31, 2019, at 3:15 PM, Charles Anthony via
cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
On Thu, Oct 31, 2019 at 9:23 AM Warner Losh <imp at bsdimp.com> wrote:
Is there any sort of product tree document for Honeywell anywhere online? Honestly even
though I was a Systems Analyst on a DPS-8, and have worked a little with DPS-6?s, they
have an incredibly confusing list of names. :-)
The FNP I?m most familiar with is the Datanet-8. I was trained on the Datanet-8000, but
never used it.
On Thu, Oct 31, 2019 at 8:15 AM Zane Healy via cctalk <
cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
Sadly no.
There are two models of FNP, the 355 and the 6661.
Anything from bitsavers relevant?
http://bitsavers.org/pdf/honeywell/
The 6661 is built around a Honeywell Level 6 16-bit
minicomputer. There is
a lot of documentation on the hardware, but we have no idea how it was
programmed to be an FNP. The 355 18 bit code obviously will not run; so
either there was a 355 emulator running on it, or there was a seperate
firmware program that we do not have.
The 355 I/O controller is probably quite similar the the DPS8/M IOM, and
with some reverse engineering of the firmware, a reasonably correct
implementation could be done. The peripherals (serial i/o multiplexor,
operators console) are conceptually straight forward and should yield to
the same approach.
There are some messy implementation details that need attention, mostly
things like interprocess communication widgets to handle the interrupt
request signals between the FNP and DPS8/M.
What is needed for 355 implementation:
IO controller docs.
HSLA (High Speed Line Adaptor) docs.
Diagnostic software, if it ever existed.
What is needed for 6661 implementation:
A Level 6 emulator.
The FNP software.
It looks like you need a copy of Multics Communications Software (MCS).
Have you seen the following document? It appears to touch on some of your questions.
http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/datapro/communications_processors/C13-480_Hone…
I think we were using GRTS on GCOS-8, as I remember that name.
It looks like you?d need a copy of the firmware, and a copy of the 8? floppy with system
test and diagnostics programs.
I?ve been trying to remember if we had to do any sort of software load on a Datanet-8, and
I can?t remember needing to do anything like that. Though obviously the Datanet-8 is
newer than a Datanet-6661.
Zane