Old Unibus PDP-11 XXDP diagnostics - test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

21 Dec 2004

On Dec 21 2004,  9:14, Guy Sotomayor wrote:
...
  On Tue, 2004-12-21 at 08:27, Ashley Carder wrote:
 > Does anyone have any info/documentation on the XXDP diagnostics for
 > older PDP-11 systems and peripherals? I'm looking in particular for
 > the 11/40 (11/35), RK05, DZ11, RL02, MM11 core memory, RX01, RL01
 > diagnostics.  I have found some info on Henk's site, but would like to
...
  > know if anyone has a comprehensive list and hints
on how to run these,
...
  > what the output means, how to answer the prompts,
etc. 
It would be a big list :-)  I had a whole box of microfiche of them,
once.  Later diagnostics use a common set of "switches" to tell them
whether to halt on error, loop on erro, produce lots of reports, etc;
alsmost all diagnostics have specific settings to determine what they
do in detail.  If they halt on error, you need the isting to determine
exactly what caused the halt -- they don't, in general, print much
informative info.
...
  OK, the "magic decoder ring" for converting
the MAINDECs to XXDP names
...
  is quite simple.  The MAINDEC # is of the form:
        MAINDEC-11-Dxxxx-*
 To convert this to the XXDP diagnostic name keep only the xxxx part of
...
  the MAINDEC #.  To run it, do:
        R xxxx??
 The first letter in the diagnostic name tells you what processor it's
 for.  If I remember correctly C=11/40, Z=any 
B is 11/40; C is 11/45
...
  There's a document that tells all about it (but I
can't remember where I
...
  found it at the moment). 
That would probably be mine, at
http://www.dunnington.u-net.com/public/PDP-11/XXDP.pdf
XXDP.ps is the same content, just a different format.
The bits from page 6 to 12 are from V2.4, but the rest is mostly
version-independant.
...
  The pack images that you're talking about
don't have the correct memory
...
  diagnostic, but I've found that ZMSDD0 (wow! from
memory...can you tell
...
  I've used it a bunch?) works OK enough to be able
to find bad memory and
...
  you'll know when you hit bad memory.  I've
also found that having a
 hardcopy terminal is preferable to a CRT when you're getting failures.
...

 If a diagnostic loads and then gives you a prompt like "DB>", START is
a
...
  good choice as a response. 
--
Pete                                            Peter Turnbull
                                                Network Manager
                                                University of York