18 Mar
2004
18 Mar
'04
4:43 p.m.
Ethan Dicks <dickset(a)amanda.spole.gov> wrote:
For the unaware, the difference between a VAXstation
2000 and a
MicroVAX 2000 is the plastic badge on the front, sometimes an
add-on framebuffer in the VS2000, and the position of a jumper
that identifies the CPU type as one vs the other (KA610 vs KA620?)
No, it's KA410-A vs. KA410-B, though I don't remember which is which.
KA610 is MicroVAX I.
KA620 is something I've heard about, but never figured out exactly what it was.
It was some kind of slightly hobbled KA630, wasn't it? Maybe a KA630 w/o FPU?
Does anyone know? I'm quite curious, as that's a gap in my VAX knowledge and
such gaps bother me. :-)
The firmware is the same, as is the default behavior
when loading VMS
The jumper (readable via the CFGTST_MULTU bit in the Configuration and Test
Register) tells the firmware and OS how to talk to the console. If MULTU=1,
send/receive ASCII to/from SLU port 0 at 9600 baud. If MULTU=0, set SLU port 0
to 4800 baud instead, except LK201 keycodes instead of ASCII coming from it, and
output must be scribbled on the bitmap display.
MS (right in the process of coding MV/VS 2000 & 3100 support for Quasijarus)
18 Mar
18 Mar
5:10 p.m.
KA620 is something I've heard about, but never
figured out exactly
what it was. It was some kind of slightly hobbled KA630, wasn't it?
Yes.
Maybe a KA630 w/o FPU?
No.
Does anyone know?
I do. I wrote a semi-embedded minikernel to run on one.
A KA620 is the same as a KA630 except that the P0 and P1 page tables
are looked up in physical memory rather than system virtual memory.
(Loosely put, P0BR and P1BR need to be physical addresses rather than
system-region virtual addresses.)
The story I heard was that customers wanted CPU baords for multi-CPU
machines, but DEC was very paranoid about people buying CPU boards and
building cheap knockoff machines with substandard backplanes &c.
As a result, DEC made it very hard to get a KA630 without a full system
around it. But the KA620 wouldn't run VMS, so people couldn't build a
knockoff VAX around it - or so the thinking went as it was explained to
me - and thus was safe to sell on its own.
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5:29 p.m.
On Thu, Mar 18, 2004 at 07:43:43PM -0800, Michael Sokolov wrote:
Ethan Dicks <dickset(a)amanda.spole.gov> wrote:
Ah... that's it.
For the unaware, the difference between a
VAXstation 2000 and a
MicroVAX 2000 is the plastic badge on the front, sometimes an
add-on framebuffer in the VS2000, and the position of a jumper
that identifies the CPU type as one vs the other (KA610 vs KA620?)
No, it's KA410-A vs. KA410-B, though I don't remember which is which. KA610 is MicroVAX I.
Right.
KA620 is something I've heard about, but never
figured out exactly what it was.
I was thinking that the uVAX was "below" a KA630, but forgot it was KA4xx... I
just threw out the KA620 number. My memory fault.
The jumper (readable via the CFGTST_MULTU bit in the
Configuration and Test
Register) tells the firmware and OS how to talk to the console. If MULTU=1,
send/receive ASCII to/from SLU port 0 at 9600 baud. If MULTU=0, set SLU port 0
to 4800 baud instead, except LK201 keycodes instead of ASCII coming from it, and
output must be scribbled on the bitmap display.
Cool. I never knew the specifics, just the consequences.
MS (right in the process of coding MV/VS 2000 &
3100 support for Quasijarus)
Neat. Hopefully memory won't be an issue. These things (as I'm sure you know
well) don't take much, but neither does a uVAX-II (KA630). Well... it's plenty
for the software of the day (and plenty for ASCII-based consoles).
-ethan
--
Ethan Dicks, A-130-S Current South Pole Weather at 19-Mar-2004 17:19 Z
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Ethan.Dicks(a)amanda.spole.gov http://penguincentral.com/penguincentral.html
22 Mar
22 Mar
3:10 a.m.
Michael Sokolov wrote:
<snip>
KA620 is something I've heard about, but never
figured out exactly what it was.
It was some kind of slightly hobbled KA630, wasn't it? Maybe a KA630 w/o FPU?
Does anyone know? I'm quite curious, as that's a gap in my VAX knowledge and
such gaps bother me. :-)
When in doubt Google it ;-)
KA620 (rtVAX): A "dumb" MicroVAX processor module, aimed at the
OEM-world, used in process controlling systems. The word "dumb" means
"unable to run VMS". It was used in the LPS40 network printer for example.
/ws
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dickset＠amanda.spole.gov -
mouse＠Rodents.Montreal.QC.CA -
msokolov＠ivan.Harhan.ORG -
waisun.chia＠hp.com