On 11/12/2014 17:58, Noel Chiappa wrote:
Does anyone know of anything that documents the
contents of the various BDV11
ROMs? In particular, I'm interested in learning what the various halt
locations imply.
Well, the binary images are on my website at
http://www.dunnington.u-net.com/public/DECROMs/
The binary files are 23-045E2.bin and 23-046E2.bin in that directory.
That would save you trying to write something to extract the contents
from the system; you are aware that although
there's 2KW of code in
there, it's accessed through a 256-byte (128 word)
window in Bank 8
which has to be programmed via the PCR?
There are 18 error halts, listed in the BDV11 manual, which I expect is
on bitsavers, and on pp107-108 of the PDP-11 Microcomputer Interfaces
Handbook 1980.
There seem to be two different ROM sets;
23-046E2/23-045E2, which seem to be
an earlier set, as they only understand 56KB of memory; and a later set,
SG8326-339E2 and SG8330-340E2 (which might not be DEC standard, the numbers on
them are 'odd' - although they might be 23-339E2/23-340E2, the boot ROMs from
the 11/23+), which understand up to 4MB of memory.
They almost certainly are. 23-045E2/23-046E2 are the BDV11 ROMs (there
was only ever that one set in public). SG8326 and SG8330 look like date
codes, and 1983 would be about right for partway through the life of an
11/23+. Also 23-339E2/23-340E2 are indeed the standard 11/23+
bootstrap/diagnostic ROMs. Perhaps someone's made a "backup copy" and
used it as an upgrade, because although DEC did use EPROMs they put
standard part numbers on them.
If you want to compare, 23-339E2.bin and 23-340E2.bin are also on my
website.
The 25 error halts for the 11/23+ are listed on pp 611-613 of the
Microcomputers and Memories Handbook 1982, and also on pp 47-49 of the
PDP-11/23-PLUS System Manual (EK-1T23B-OP-001).
(Interestingly, the latter set are on Intel D2716s,
EPROMs, unlike the earlier
ones, which are plain PROMs.)
You've already discovered, I imagine, that there are gazillions of ways
to set up and use the sockets on a BDV11, and one way is to allow the
use of EPROMs in the main socket pair. The settings are in the BDV11
manual - which I have, but can't get to right now, though it's probably
on bitsavers as I mentioned above - and also on pages 86-113 of the
PDP-11 Microcomputer Interfaces Handbook 1980. Specifically, W5-W8 and
W13 (page 98) set the ROM/EPROM type for the main pair of sockets. For
2716 EPROMs, they should be W5,W6,W8 removed and W7,W13 inserted.
That's actually the same as one of the two types of mask ROMs; the other
type uses W5 inserted and W13 removed. The difference is due to
opposite polarity of one of the three chip selects (CS3).
You should also look up the functions of the switches, as they set the
bootstrap type, and the LEDs as they tell you something about what's
being tested during boot and what errors if it fails.
--
Pete
Pete Turnbull