Differences between PDP-11/83-84 M8190-AB/AC and AD/AE CPU cards

Oops, that was not the asked question! All I know about the /73 and /83 is the crystal, and the CPU "version" (-09). Maybe a few PALs have to be a faster version, but I do not expect that. The 15 MHz to 18 MHz is not that big of a difference. Apologies for the previous post, - Henk -----Oorspronkelijk bericht----- From: Henk Gooijen Sent: Wednesday, February 04, 2015 8:22 PM To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts Subject: Re: Differences between PDP-11/83-84 M8190-AB/AC and AD/AE CPU cards Without any checking, just digging in my "grey cells", so I could be wrong ... The 11/84 has all of its memory "elsewhere", that is *not* on the CPU module. The 11/94 has *all* memory that can be addressed *on* the CPU module. So, the 11/94 has either 2MB or 4MB, what's installed on the module. The performance gain of the 11/94 over the 11/84 is in fact the local memory. If the 11/84 has 100% cache hits, it comes close to the 11/94. You could see the 11/94 as an 11/84 with all memory as cache memory. AFAIK, you cannot add memory to the 11/94 by adding a memory module on the bus. The memory must be on the CPU module. - Henk, PA8PDP -----Oorspronkelijk bericht----- From: Noel Chiappa Sent: Wednesday, February 04, 2015 6:40 PM To: cctalk at classiccmp.org Cc: jnc at mercury.lcs.mit.edu Subject: Differences between PDP-11/83-84 M8190-AB/AC and AD/AE CPU cards So I've seen some references which say that the M8190-AB and -AC (w-o/w FPJ11 FPP chip) are 15 MHz "11/73" CPUs for QBUS use, and the M8190-AD and -AE (w-o/w FPJ11) are 18 MHz "11/83-84" CPUs for UNIBUS use (via the KTJ11-B convertor, of course). (Of course, the /83 is nominally QBUS, but let's ignore that for the moment... :-) (And I'm not even going to try to give the KDJ11- suffixes that go with these... :-) However, I'm wondering if this is correct... I have a CPU board out of a 11/84 (one owned by DEC, no less!) which says M8190-AB on the handles, but the clock crystal says "18.432", and it has a 57-19400-09 J11 chip, which seems to be the 18MHz version (the 15Mhz seems to be -04). Comparing it to a 'stock' -AB, this one seems to have the same 74S472 PROMs (6 along the lower left-hand edge), PALs (top center and lower left), etc. But they also match the ones on a 'stock' -AE, too! So clearly an -AB/AC _can_ be _upgraded_ to an -AD/-AE... but are there actually any differences between an -AB/AC and an -AD/-AE, other than the speed? I don't have my /84 up yet, so I can't plug a stock -AB in and see if it works, but I'm starting to get the impression that except for the speed of the J11 (and the crystal), and whether or not it came with the FPJ11, all four of these boards are otherwise identical. Whether it's a 73, 83 or 84 depends entirely on whether it has PMI memory and the KTJ11-B UNIBUS converter (and the correct backplane, for the latter, of course). Anyone have an confirmation one way or the other? Thanks! Noel