ID these DEC floppy disks? - test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

28 Nov 1998

On Nov 28, 11:40, Christian Fandt wrote:

...
  >> > BL-T540B-M1  CZUFDB1  USER TESTS
 >> > BL-T541B-M1  CZXD1B1   FIELD SERVICE TESTS 1
 >> > BL-T542B-MC  CZXD2B0   FIELD SERVICE TESTS 2
 >> > BL-T565B-MC  CZXD3B0   FIELD SERVICE TESTS 3
 >> > BL-T583B-MC  CZXD4B0   FIELD SERVICE TESTS 4 
To which Pete replied:

...
  >They are indeed XXDP disks.  They're the field
service set for a
 >microPDP-11/23+.  They contain XXDP Ver.2 plus relevant disgnostics, the
 >User Tests disks has the XXDP utilities and confidence test,  Tests 1 has
...
  >object files and some utilities, Tests 2 has
KDF11/BDV11/DLV11J/etc tests,
...
  >Tests 3 has less-frequently-used interface tests,
Tests 4 has other tape
 >and disk tests. 
...
  I have no documentation on these disks, therefore, a
few questions for you
...
  and the others:

 ** Will the disks still work with the 11/73 and the third-party disk
 controller? 
They'll work with the processor; they'll work with the the 3rd-party disk
so long as it emulates an RX50 with MSCP protocol.

...
  ** Is there an online index or something where you
looked up those 'CZ'
 part numbers or do you have the user's manual or same software in your
 library to find the info above? (i.e., How did you know what they were and
...
  how can I find the same?) 
I have the same set (and a lot of other XXDP/XXDP+ files), and I have
listings and notes from DEC maintenance courses.

...
  ** Any online manuals for these diagnostics? Or,
anybody willing to sell a
...
  xerographic copy of them to me? 
There were some manuals on microfiche; I have course notes on paper for
XXDP/XXDP+ and my own notes for XXDP Version 2 (I think that's what it was
called; some people referred to it as XXDP++ but that wasn't what DEC
called it) as on those disks.

There's a key to the names.  For the older versions:

Hxmnrp.SYS is a system file: H means SYSTEM, x=M,D,U,S,Q for Monitor,
Decice Driver, Utility, Supervisor, or miscellaneous ; mn is the device
mnemonic for the medium supported; rp is the revision and patch level.

tmnirp.BI? is a diagnostic program;
  t   processor type, eg V or Z
  mn  device mnemonic, eg RQ
  i   program identifier, eg C
  rp  revision and patch level, eg B2
  ?   is N or C (BIN=binary, BIC=relocatable binary)
Thus ZRQCH0.BIC is for any processor, using an RQDX controller, third
diagnostic of the set (this one happens to be a disk formatter, but you
would only know that if you knew what was in the set), eight version, never
patched.

There are some special mnemonics:
  DI  directory utility
  SU  setup utility
  AA  XXDP supervisor file
  AB  PT/AMS supervisor file
  SA  User manual
Apart from that, most of the mnemonics are simliar to the letters of the
device name (eg RQ for RQDX, MR for MR11/MRV11, DL for DL11/DLV11, etc) but
usually not the standard DEC device driver mnemonics.

Dtirp.BIN is a Unibus test; t is the test type, rest as above, except
  0  instruction test
  1  adressing test
  6  AA11/VT06/LAB11 test
  8  Unibus test

The common processor type letters for QBus are
  J  11/23, 11/24
  V  11/03
  Z  any processor

If I can find the source files, I'll put machine-readable notes on my web
pages (probablyt as PostScript).  That is mostly XXDP V2 stuff.  I *might*
have some machine-readble XXDP+ notes; if I can find any I put them up too.
 I'll post a note to the list if and when...

-- 

Pete						Peter Turnbull
						Dept. of Computer Science
						University of York