Deciphering PDP-11/05 ZQKC (Instruction Exerciser) MAINDEC failures...

[william degnan]

On Sun, Nov 8, 2015 at 12:50 PM, Josh Dersch <derschjo at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi all -
>
> As noted in a mail last week, I now have my PDP-11/05 running with working
> core (8KW).  I had some time last night to try loading in some "real"
> software, and I started with the PDP-11 paper-tape BASIC, which I've
> successfully loaded into memory (in theory).  At this point, it became
> clear that there's still an issue or two to iron out in the CPU; BASIC
> behaves extremely erratically, spewing random error messages, listing
> garbage, and corrupting itself and crashing pretty quickly.
>
> I'd run the memory exerciser MAINDECs previously (and I ran them again for
> good measure) and there are no obvious issues with the memory.  The system
> exerciser diagnostic (ZQKB) passes, but the "11 family instruction
> exerciser" (ZQKC) fails after a minute or so at PC=016014.
>
> I have the listing for the diagnostic (though I'm not precisely sure
> whether it's exactly the same revision) from here:
>
> http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/dec/pdp11/xxdp/diag_listings/MAINDEC-11-DZQKC-C-D_11_Family_Instruction_Exerciser_Nov73.pdf
>
> The doc is pretty grainy but the code at 016012 doesn't actually seem to
> match what I've got in memory (I disabled relocation in the test just to be
> sure things didn't get moved around) and there's no failure check at that
> particular point in memory either.
>
> I've tried the paper-tape images from Bitsavers as well as the ones on the
> XXDP RL02 images floating around out there and they all yield the same
> results; I suppose it's possible the CPU is failing in such a way as to
> make the test reporting incorrect but it seems more likely that (a) I have
> an outdated listing or (b) I'm misinterpreting the results somehow.
>
> Anyone have any experience with this particular diagnostic?
>
> Thanks,
> Josh
>

FWIW - I find the MAINDEC programs frustrating to work with myself.

I am also working on an 11/05, same basic stage in testing.  I can load
programs but I get failures eventually.  The power tests accurately.  I
think in my case the G114 (sense / inhibit) is the issue but I am still
working on it.   I have a teletype set up to interact with the machine.


-- 
Bill