7 Jul
1998
7 Jul
'98
10:19 a.m.
Last night I poked a little around the RA60 and the
11/34A that I want to
keep. I saw a cable ass'y attached to the RA60 which had two black cables
(about 7/8"wide x 3/8" thick) and relatively small plastic 8-pin
connector recepticles within a comparatively hefty backshell. Inside the
11/34A cabinet there were a group of four of the same small mating
connectors which had four flat, red cables running from that group into a
Unibus board in the the BA11 (forgot module number). A 12-foot long cable
with two 8-pin plastic connectors each within a large backshell was
laying inside the 11/34A box. I extrapulate from a couple of other
private msgs that this is probably the UDA50 interface. True?
Sounds good to me...
Please tell me about this disk I/F. Any FAQ on it
somewhere?
RA60 is a removable disk, part of the RA series of MSCP (mas storage
communications protocol) disks... MSCP is a Digital proprietary
protocol, but if you check the uncommented source for the DU handler
on RT-11, you'll find lots of info on how to program it (or at least
you'll have a chance to figure it out -- it's uncommented) Other
members of the family are the RA8x series and the RA9x series...
Also, I would like to find the same tech info or
descriptions on the MSCP
interface which I understand the RL01s and RL02s have.
MSCP was used for many disks put out by Digital, but not the RL01 or
RL02... these disks are smarter than an RK05, but still required
programming at the cylinder/head/etc level instead of abstract
objects like blocks...
Looks like a J-11 chip on the CPU board in an 11/23
chassis that was
buried in the pile (darn little thing was so small compared to the 5000+
pounds of other boxen that I forgot to mention it in my first msg.)
That's basically an 11/73 isn't it?
You don't mean an '11/23' chassis... it may be a BA23, or a BA123 (or
a BA-11). If you have a J-11 chip on a board, we'll need to know
more about the board. Is it dual high? (KDJ11-A -- 11/73A). Is it
quad high? (KDJ11-B -- 11/73B or 11/83, KDJ11-D -- 11/53, or KDJ11-E --
11/93). Is there memory on the board? (KDJ11-D or KDJ11-E) Is there
a space for a 40-pin chip? (FP chip, KDJ11-A and KDJ11-B) etc.
Then again, you could tell us the M-number and we could tell you what
it is... :-)
Megan Gentry
Former RT-11 Developer
+--------------------------------+-------------------------------------+
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7 Jul
7 Jul
11:26 a.m.
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8 Jul
8 Jul
9:43 a.m.
At 00:26 08-07-98 +0100, ard(a)p850ug1.demon.co.uk (Tony Duell) wrote:
Eh? While the command set of the UDA50 is MSCP, I wasn't aware that MSCP
command packets were sent to RA drives. I don't see why it would be
impossible to make an SDI controller that used some other command set.
IMHO the RL11 is dumber than the RK11. For one thing the RK11 supports
spiral reads/writes. And to move heads you load the disk address register
with the cylinder you want to go to, not the number of cylinders you want
to move. With the RL11 you've got to remember where you are.
In a msg sent to the list by me a short while ago, I mentioned a five-board
set which was designated RK611 according to text on the foil of side 2 of
three of the boards. How is the RK611 interface different from the others?
On another subject, in several of the PDP machines here there's an M7856
module (the DL11-W option) designated as "SLU and realtime clock". What
exactly does SLU mean in this case? Serial Line Unit?
BTW, two M7856 modules are in the 11/34A I'm keeping. One has a
hand-written label saying "CONSOLE" and the other is several
incomprehensible letters also hand-written. I assume the Operator's
Console, such as an LA120 or VT-something is attached to the module labeled
"CONSOLE". It does have a cable running from the module connector out to a
25pin "D" connector bolted to the back of the cabinet which in turn has a
ten or 15-foot cable attached.
There are a group of 16 D25 connectors on the back panel of the machine
(cabled to the two M7819's) obviously for the user terminals. Unlike the
IBM 9370 and HP 250/30 machines I have, on which the operator's console is
attached to one of the corresponding group of user terminal connectors, it
seems there typically is a separate serial console connector for the DEC
world just for the system operator. Is my thinking correct here?
The second M7856, what could that be for? The cable attached to that other
M7856 has a connector on the other end with, IIRC, 6 or 7 pins inside a
flat, white nylon shell. Length of the cable is about three or four feet.
The nylon shell end connects to nothing that I can see anywhere.
Another BTW: it seems I have a fairly nice 11/34A that I'm keeping out of
that truckload. It has an M8267 FP processor (FP11-A) attached to the
KD11-EA processor board pair (M8265 & M8266) along with the M8268 11/34
cache module (KK11-A), etc.
I will ask the list more questions about the 11/34A soon as I want to fire
her up and check her out. Those questions would be something on the order
of "What do I do first, second, next, etc." (told ya I would ask
'newbie-like' questions!) I already see some notes attached to the machine
as to bootup sequence but I'm sure I'll have to check with you folks a
little first. There are likely disk packs buried in that heap of packs
which are called for in that note. There are maybe 75 to 80 packs to
rummage through. Just hope they're labeled in some manner!!
It was said to run RSX-11M and I gotta crack the manuals on that OS before
I get too close to the power switch. Anything I should know or do first
before I apply power?
Thanks for your help!
--Chris
-- --
Christian Fandt, Electronic/Electrical Historian
Jamestown, NY USA
Member of Antique Wireless Association
URL: http://www.ggw.org/freenet/a/awa/
Please tell me about this disk I/F. Any FAQ on it
somewhere?
RA60 is a removable disk, part of the RA series of MSCP (mas storage
communications protocol) disks... MSCP is a Digital proprietary Also, I
would like to find the same tech info or descriptions on the MSCP
interface which I understand the RL01s and RL02s have.
MSCP was used for many disks put out by Digital, but not the RL01 or
RL02... these disks are smarter than an RK05, but still required
11:59 a.m.
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1:31 p.m.
It was said to run RSX-11M and I gotta crack the
manuals on that OS before
I get too close to the power switch. Anything I should know or do first
before I apply power?
It's probably a good idea to check out the Power Supply prior to applying
power with the boards in place. If you remove the board make careful notes
as to their location.
If you don't have the passwords for your RSX-11M distribution you will want
to do a DejaNews search on how to bypass them as the system comes up.
Zane
| Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Adminstrator |
| healyzh(a)ix.netcom.com (primary) | Linux Enthusiast |
| healyzh(a)holonet.net (alternate) | Classic Computer Collector |
+----------------------------------+----------------------------+
| Empire of the Petal Throne and Traveller Role Playing, |
| and Zane's Computer Museum. |
| http://www.dragonfire.net/~healyzh/ |
8:19 a.m.
At 18:19 07-07-98 -0400, mbg(a)world.std.com (Megan) wrote:
-- snip --
>>Looks like a J-11 chip on the CPU board
in an 11/23 chassis that was
>>buried in the pile (darn little thing was so small compared to the 5000+
>>pounds of other boxen that I forgot to mention it in my first msg.)
>>That's basically an 11/73 isn't it?
>You don't mean an '11/23'
chassis... it may be a BA23, or a BA123 (or
>a BA-11). If you have a J-11 chip on a board, we'll need to know
>more about the board. Is it dual high? (KDJ11-A -- 11/73A). Is it
>quad high? (KDJ11-B -- 11/73B or 11/83, KDJ11-D -- 11/53, or KDJ11-E --
>11/93). Is there memory on the board? (KDJ11-D or KDJ11-E) Is there
>a space for a 40-pin chip? (FP chip, KDJ11-A and KDJ11-B) etc.
>Then again, you could tell us the M-number
and we could tell you what
>it is... :-)
I took a look at that board last evening. It's indeed an 11/73 as the
module # is M8192-YB. Thanks to the "Field Guide to Q-bus and Unibus
Modules" found at sunsite.unc.edu I found this mentioned. I had just found
that FG @ sunsite:)
That field guide is *really* handy! However, no maintenance has been done
on it since 1995 it seems. I have five M-numbers to add that I found in the
11/34A which are not on the list. They are for the five-board set
designated as "RK611". This RK611 is the controller set for the RK07 drives
which were hung onto the machine. The #'s are M7900 thru M7904, inclusive.
Any of you know if either this guide is just stagnant or is there a fully
maintained, up-to-date version anywhere?
The 11/23 chassis I have is the small 5" high chassis which has the plastic
bezel and several switches on the front panel which says it's an 11/23. I
did not have time to pick it up and find the BA# yet. I'll inventory the
other boards in it tonite if I am allowed into the garage;)
--Chris
-- --
Christian Fandt, Electronic/Electrical Historian
Jamestown, NY USA
Member of Antique Wireless Association
URL: http://www.ggw.org/freenet/a/awa/
9665
days inactive
9666
days old
5 comments
4 participants
participants (4)
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ard＠p850ug1.demon.co.uk -
cfandt＠servtech.com -
healyzh＠ix.netcom.com -
mbg＠world.std.com