11 Jun
2000
11 Jun
'00
2:55 p.m.
Is it possible to use a DECmate III from a terminal if one has no monitor
or keyboard for it? Since it's in the PDP-8 family, can it run OS/8?
BTW, Does anyone have any stories of favorite PDP-8 or Decmate hacks,
and, has anyone here used a DECmate for any music or sound synthesis
applications?
--
R. D. Davis
rdd(a)perqlogic.com
http://www.perqlogic.com/rdd
410-744-4900
11 Jun
11 Jun
4:58 p.m.
On Sun, Jun 11, 2000 at 07:55:58PM -0400, R. D. Davis wrote:
Is it possible to use a DECmate III from a terminal if
one has no monitor
or keyboard for it?
I doubt it, with the standard slushware anyway. Maybe if you wrote your own.
Since it's in the PDP-8 family, can it run OS/8?
More or less -- the DECmate 2/3/3+ port of OS/8 is called OS/278. You can get
raw disk images from ftp.dbit.com, under pub/pdp8/images/block. These are
raw images in PDP-11 sector order, not Teledisk images, they can be written
using PUTR.COM on a PC, or using whatever's handy on a Pro or MicroPDP-11
or MicroVAX.
John Wilson
D Bit
12 Jun
12 Jun
4:41 a.m.
Is it possible to use a DECmate III from a terminal if
one has no monitor
or keyboard for it?
That depends on what you mean by "possible".
The DECmate II and (I presume, although I've not played with one) the III
use Harris I/O support chips. The first thing you need to do to these
chips after power-on is to configure their address. Consequently, there's
a table of IOTs executed by the processor straight out of reset to get
the job done. It should be possible to switch the addresses configured
for the console port and the printer port in that table. The effect would
be that the printer port would now be the console port and the terminal
emulation in the slushware would now run the printer port.
No, I've not tried this. Furthermore, every time I mention the possibility
some pretty knowledgeable folks usually tell me it won't work. I don't
see why it won't work.
BTW, does anyone have a good archive of Lasner's rantings? We really need
a good Lasner rantings archive somewhere on the net.
--
Roger Ivie
rivie(a)teraglobal.com
Not speaking for TeraGlobal Communications Corporation
5:26 a.m.
The DECmate II and (I presume, although I've not
played with one) the III
use Harris I/O support chips. The first thing you need to do to these
chips after power-on is to configure their address. Consequently, there's
a table of IOTs executed by the processor straight out of reset to get
the job done. It should be possible to switch the addresses configured
True.
for the console port and the printer port in that
table. The effect would
be that the printer port would now be the console port and the terminal
emulation in the slushware would now run the printer port.
Will not work.
No, I've not tried this. Furthermore, every time I
mention the possibility
some pretty knowledgeable folks usually tell me it won't work. I don't
see why it won't work.
Simple, the slushware does the port to 5027based video and keycodes to
ascii translations and terminal emulation. You would not want that
inbetween a nominal serial port and the system while using a terminal.
To do thiswould require modding the slushware so that a normal console
requests are mapped to another port. the problem is that the 03/04 ports
do not support the full set of standard IOTs for TTY and interrupts.
the rest of the ports are even less like standard PDP-8 IO so you would
at a minimum be designing a full set of slushware and IOTs.
That is the crux of the Lasner ravings as to why a DECmate is not a PDP-8.
It is a system that is largely pdp-8 in character because of a micro that
executes most PDP-8 opcodes. However there is a holw class of PDP-8
things a decmate can't due to lack of buss access and the ability to
interface to real PDP-8 peripherals (not easy to do threy cycle databreak
using the CMOS CPU as a coopertive element).
check UU.SE and also www.dbit.com the nickles directory.
Allison
9:18 a.m.
Simple, the slushware does the port to 5027based video
and keycodes to
ascii translations and terminal emulation. You would not want that
inbetween a nominal serial port and the system while using a terminal.
To do thiswould require modding the slushware so that a normal console
requests are mapped to another port.
Which is exactly what my suggestion to modify the address intialization
table in the ROM does. Yeah, you need to have an EPROM burner, but that
goes back to what the definition of "possible" is.
--
Roger Ivie
rivie(a)teraglobal.com
Not speaking for TeraGlobal Communications Corporation
11:15 a.m.
New subject: Stag PP28 documentation query
On Mon, 12 Jun 2000, Roger Ivie wrote:
Which is exactly what my suggestion to modify the
address intialization
table in the ROM does. Yeah, you need to have an EPROM burner, but that
goes back to what the definition of "possible" is.
Speaking of EPROM burning, would anyone here happen to know where I
could obtain documentation for a Stag model PP28 EPROM burner? Stag
is yet another company that no longer keeps any documentation around
for their products that are more than a few years old. :-(
Is it me, or is is strange, and ridiculous, that many computer and
electronic equipment manufacturers don't even keep documentation
around, not even for historical purposes, for more than a few years?
It would make perfect sense for most companies in the computer and
electronics field to replace all the "Inc."s with "Sales
Corporation",
since all they're obviously interested in is sales, not product
quality or durability. ...well, they do talk about complying with
that ISO9xxx "quality" lunacy, but we all know that's nothing more
than a marketing gimmick to drive up prices and drive yet another
stake in the coffin of individuality in the name of conformity.
--
R. D. Davis
rdd(a)perqlogic.com
http://www.perqlogic.com/rdd
410-744-4900
10:03 p.m.
New subject: Stag PP28 documentation query
"R. D. Davis" wrote:
Speaking of EPROM burning, would anyone here happen to know where I
could obtain documentation for a Stag model PP28 EPROM burner?
I've got the documentation for this. A few years ago I converted some of
it to PostScript so I could runoff more copies. I don't think I
completed it, but I'll dig out what I've got and scan the rest. You can
go a long way by just having the summary of all the SET commands, which
change the device type, I/O formats, etc.
Actually, now I think about it, the _real_ reason for converting it to
PostScript was just to show off the 14-segment LED font I created. The
diagrams originally appeared to be hand drawn.
13 Jun
13 Jun
3:33 a.m.
New subject: Stag PP28 documentation query
Paul Williams wrote:
"R. D. Davis" wrote:
Whoops. Having just been home and checked, I find that my programmer is
a PP39. However, if you think the documentation for _that_ might be
useful, let me know.
Speaking of EPROM burning, would anyone here happen to know where I
could obtain documentation for a Stag model PP28 EPROM burner?
I've got the documentation for this. 
16 Jun
16 Jun
4:25 a.m.
New subject: Stag PP28 documentation query
On Tue, 13 Jun 2000 13:33:05 +0100 Paul Williams
<flo(a)rdel.co.uk> wrote:
Whoops. Having just been home and checked, I find that
my programmer is
a PP39. However, if you think the documentation for _that_ might be
useful, let me know.
Just in case anybody else has one, I have a Stag PPZ
Universal Programmer with manuals for the EPROM and PAL
plug-in modules. The programmer itself is a classic
computer, since it's a 6809 machine with a little built-in
CRT display.
--
John Honniball
Email: John.Honniball(a)uwe.ac.uk
University of the West of England
21 Jun
21 Jun
11:12 a.m.
New subject: Stag PP28 documentation query
John Honniball <John.Honniball(a)uwe.ac.uk> wrote:
On Tue, 13 Jun 2000 13:33:05 +0100 Paul Williams
<flo(a)rdel.co.uk> wrote:
Hi John
I have a PPZ but no manual. I only have the EPROM module
but would love to find out the serial protocals.
Dwight
Whoops. Having just been home and checked, I find
that my programmer is
a PP39. However, if you think the documentation for _that_ might be
useful, let me know.
Just in case anybody else has one, I have a Stag PPZ
Universal Programmer with manuals for the EPROM and PAL
plug-in modules. The programmer itself is a classic
computer, since it's a 6809 machine with a little built-in
CRT display.
--
John Honniball
Email: John.Honniball(a)uwe.ac.uk
University of the West of England
8803
days inactive
8813
days old
9 comments
7 participants
participants (7)
-
allisonp＠world.std.com -
elvey＠hal.com -
flo＠rdel.co.uk -
John.Honniball＠uwe.ac.uk -
rdd＠smart.net -
rivie＠teraglobal.com -
wilson＠dbit.dbit.com