OT(?): Emulation XKCD

[Zane Healy]

> On Oct 31, 2019, at 3:15 PM, Charles Anthony via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
> 
> On Thu, Oct 31, 2019 at 9:23 AM Warner Losh <imp at bsdimp.com> wrote:
> 
>> 
>> 
>> On Thu, Oct 31, 2019 at 8:15 AM Zane Healy via cctalk <
>> cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
>> 
>>> 
>>> Anything from bitsavers relevant?
>> 
>> http://bitsavers.org/pdf/honeywell/
>> 
>> 
> Sadly no.
> 
> There are two models of FNP, the 355 and the 6661.

Is there any sort of product tree document for Honeywell anywhere online?  Honestly even though I was a Systems Analyst on a DPS-8, and have worked a little with DPS-6’s, they have an incredibly confusing list of names. :-)

The FNP I’m most familiar with is the Datanet-8.  I was trained on the Datanet-8000, but never used it.

> The 6661 is built around a Honeywell Level 6 16-bit minicomputer. There is
> a lot of documentation on the hardware, but we have no idea how it was
> programmed to be an FNP. The 355 18 bit code obviously will not run; so
> either there was a 355 emulator running on it, or there was a seperate
> firmware program that we do not have.
> 
> The 355 I/O controller is probably quite similar the the DPS8/M IOM, and
> with some reverse engineering of the firmware, a reasonably correct
> implementation could be done. The peripherals (serial i/o multiplexor,
> operators console) are conceptually straight forward and should yield to
> the same approach.
> 
> There are some messy implementation details that need attention, mostly
> things like interprocess communication widgets to handle the interrupt
> request signals between the FNP and DPS8/M.
> 
> What is needed for 355 implementation:
>    IO controller docs.
>    HSLA (High Speed Line Adaptor) docs.
>    Diagnostic software, if it ever existed.
> 
> What is needed for 6661 implementation:
>    A Level 6 emulator.
>    The FNP software.

It looks like you need a copy of Multics Communications Software (MCS).

Have you seen the following document?  It appears to touch on some of your questions.
http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/datapro/communications_processors/C13-480_Honeywell_DATANET_6661.pdf

I think we were using GRTS on GCOS-8, as I remember that name.

It looks like you’d need a copy of the firmware, and a copy of the 8” floppy with system test and diagnostics programs.

I’ve been trying to remember if we had to do any sort of software load on a Datanet-8, and I can’t remember needing to do anything like that.  Though obviously the Datanet-8 is newer than a Datanet-6661.

Zane