need some advice on some VAX boards ... - test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

4 Oct 2001

...
  I suppose you
*COULD* write a driver that lets you use the board
for non-booting devices if you had enough information available. 
       That depends on exactly why the firmware
       will not play with VAX. My *guess* (based
       on exactly no information ...) is that it has
       intimate knowledge of some internal
       OpenVMS Alpha data structure (page
       tables or such like). 
That's what I meant by enough information.  You'd need the source for
OpenVMS Alpha, OpenVMS VAX, and the driver as the bare minimum along
with hardware specs.

...
        So it is quite possible that you would need
       to re-write the firmware to be able to do
       *anything* with the board at all. 
Or you could possibly do the setup in the driver initialization.  

It would be much simpler to use a CIXCD to an HSJxx controller.
When you factor in the development costs the CI solution would
be much less expensive as well.  

We use CIXCD boards in our VAX 7730 systems (actually two for
redundancy to dual Star Couplers).
-- 
Eric Dittman
dittman(a)dittman.net
Check out the DEC Enthusiasts Club at http://www.dittman.net/