11 Jan
2008
11 Jan
'08
9:39 p.m.
H?lscher wrote:
While preparing to test some of my Q-bus equipment
with XXDP+ I found out that most of the diagnostic programs are not very well documented
(at least not in public available manuals).
Information I need:
- names and detailed descriptions of tests & subtests
(e.g. diagnostic ZRXF has got 36 (!) tests)
- description and interpretation of error codes and messages
(e.g. diagnostic ZRLH: ERR 200 TST 20 SUB 000 "SK OP-FLAG MODE")
Is there a comprehensive manual (not just only what's in the PDP11 Diagnostic
Handbook XXDP 1988) available somewhere or has anyone got the sources for the following
tests:
RXV21/RX02: ZRXD ZRXE ZRXF
RLV12/RL02: ZRLG ZRLH ZRLI ZRLJ ZRLK ZRLM ZRLN VRLB
I know there are some XXDP sources online at Henk's website (http://www.pdp-11.nl/),
but unfortunately not the ones I need :-((
Any help is very much appreciated!
Regards, Ulli
DEC diagnostics (of which I was the author of several way back when)
were only ever documented in the assembler listing. Typically when a
customer bought a particular option/CPU, they received paper tape
binaries (or later, disk/magtape media) of the binaries and printed
hardcopy of the assembled source (later on this migrated to microfiche
as well). DEC never distributed (to my knowledge) machine readable
listings and/or source files.
All the operation modes and options of the diagnostic are given in the
text at the beginning of the diagnostic. Sometimes there is a summary
listing of tests, sometimes not.
When a particular test fails, the expected process was for the FE to
look at the test code in the listing and try and figure out what to fix
(by the early 80s this meant board swap).
So unless you can find program listings, most of the error messages in a
printout will be esoteric at best and hard to connect to a particular
failure.