Sampsa,
Clear the boot flags.
-Steve
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-hecnet at Update.UU.SE [mailto:owner-hecnet at Update.UU.SE] On
Behalf Of Sampsa Laine
Sent: Tuesday, August 23, 2011 14:50
To: hecnet at Update.UU.SE
Subject: [HECnet] How to turn off SYSBOOT> prompt on rx2600
I've somehow managed to make my rx2600's VMS boot give me a SYSBOOT>
prompt every damn time.
How do I turn this off?
Sampsa
On the original question...
Please see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Table_of_8-inch_floppy_formats
I'd say that this drive "can" be hooked to for example a VAX, even though it would be more easy to use a PDP-11.
When the interface gets ready and a driver software is written, this would enable reading of IBM-diskettes with their data/code ;-)
I'd doubt that DEC-diskettes (RX01 or RX02) could be used, but that might be me being just a little to negative...
One important question might be if this type of drive uses soft or hard sectors. (Soft means one index hole per revolution, hard means one per sector, ie often like 16/rev. IBM often used the latter in their consoles for 370 etc.
But I can't really remember if this is actually taken care of by the drive or by the controller - I'd guess controller actually. That means this drive might be successfully interfaced using for example an RXV21. One issue might be that DEC is stated to use 77 tracks, the IBM says "usable tracks 74" - question is how many tracks the stepper motor actually has accessible by other mechanics - possibly, this might be more of a media concern.
Myself, If access to an 8" floppy for DEC-equipment is wanted, I'd go for either true RX02 (though the drive is quite bulky), or a true 3:d party driver, like BASF, possibly Fujitsu etc. Myself, I've got a couple of double drives 8" 1/2-height (about 1 1/2") neatly packed side by side in an 19" 1he unit that used to be connected to a micro-vax.
In my opinion, IBM hardware is often "odd", big blue was big enough not to care for industrial standards, and is therefore at the best my second choice...
Happy computing, anyway!
/G ran
On 2011-08-23 19:08, Sampsa Laine wrote:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vintage-IBM-6360-8-Disk-Drive-Displaywriter-/1107…
The PDP-11/40 in the lab also had a TU56. When I wanted to copy between RK05 packs I ran RT-11 from DECtape. The TU56 was/is block addressable and behaves like a disk. Like the TU58, which was in all other respects pretty much a disaster. The total amount of time spent waiting by 750 and 730 system managers during a VMS upgrade must be staggering. Definitely a low point for the hardware designers. Was I glad that the 750 eventually learned to boot directly off an RA device!
Verzonden vanaf mijn draadloze BlackBerry -toestel
-----Original Message-----
From: <Paul_Koning at Dell.com>
Sender: owner-hecnet at Update.UU.SE
Date: Tue, 23 Aug 2011 13:10:27
To: <hecnet at Update.UU.SE>
Reply-To: hecnet at Update.UU.SESubject: RE: [HECnet] Can we hook this up to a VAX or something?
Oh no. A TU58 is a joke device that connects via a UART; the driver for it is a pile of software that speaks a packet protocol over that UART to send/receive the data.
The TU56 is a classic PDP-11 style DMA device, hooked to a Unibus interface. It looks somewhat like an old style disk interface (like the RK05 or RP04) except that you first had to seek to the required block number (by doing read block number operations until the right number shows up). Also, a TU56 is reliable, unlike a TU58.
Oh no. A TU58 is a joke device that connects via a UART; the driver for it is a pile of software that speaks a packet protocol over that UART to send/receive the data.
The TU56 is a classic PDP-11 style DMA device, hooked to a Unibus interface. It looks somewhat like an old style disk interface (like the RK05 or RP04) except that you first had to seek to the required block number (by doing read block number operations until the right number shows up). Also, a TU56 is reliable, unlike a TU58.
Interesting, that a TU56 was supported by VMS. How did that become possible? Is it because the driver for the TU58 also happened to work for the TU56, possibly assisted by some SYSGEN magic to configure UB vector and addresses?
------Origineel bericht------
Van: Paul_Koning at Dell.com
Afzender: owner-hecnet at Update.UU.SE
Aan: hecnet at Update.UU.SE
Beantwoorden: hecnet at Update.UU.SE
Onderwerp: RE: [HECnet] Can we hook this up to a VAX or something?
Verzonden: 23 augustus 2011 19:48
I can't remember whether the RK05 was supported by VMS?
No, not AFAIK but the RL02 (either on an RL11 or the RB730) was.
But did it work? There were some strange old devices that worked on VMS even though not "supported" -- the TU56 (real DECtape) comes to mind.
paul
Verzonden vanaf mijn draadloze BlackBerry -toestel
The TU56 driver was always unsupported, but RX02s and RL02s were
officially supported and worked just fine.
Bob
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-hecnet at Update.UU.SE [mailto:owner-hecnet at Update.UU.SE] On Behalf
Of Paul_Koning at Dell.com
Sent: Tuesday, August 23, 2011 10:49 AM
To: hecnet at Update.UU.SE
Subject: RE: [HECnet] Can we hook this up to a VAX or something?
I can't remember whether the RK05 was supported by VMS?
No, not AFAIK but the RL02 (either on an RL11 or the RB730) was.
But did it work? There were some strange old devices that worked on VMS
even though not "supported" -- the TU56 (real DECtape) comes to mind.
paul
I can't remember whether the RK05 was supported by VMS?
No, not AFAIK but the RL02 (either on an RL11 or the RB730) was.
But did it work? There were some strange old devices that worked on VMS even though not "supported" -- the TU56 (real DECtape) comes to mind.
paul
You'd need. MC SYSGEN CONNECT CONSOLE to make that happen.
True, but having done that you could access it from VMS just fine. Ditto
for the TU58 drives that were used as console media on the 730 and 750.
Directly connected UNIBUS RX02 drives showed up under VMS as the DYA0/1
devices as you'd expect.
I can't remember whether the RK05 was supported by VMS?
No, not AFAIK but the RL02 (either on an RL11 or the RB730) was.
Bob
The console RX02 on the 780 wasn't "visible" to VMS. You'd need. MC SYSGEN CONNECT CONSOLE to make that happen. I used a PDP-11/40 with RX02's but never actually seen such an interface on a VAX unibus. Very useful to transfer data between systems; this was before ethernet was common, let alone affordable. An alternative was the RL02. Which became the load device for the PDP-11/23 console in the 8600/8650.
I can't remember whether the RK05 was supported by VMS?
Hans
------Origineel bericht------
Van: Bob Armstrong
Afzender: owner-hecnet at Update.UU.SE
Aan: hecnet at Update.UU.SE
Beantwoorden: hecnet at Update.UU.SE
Onderwerp: RE: [HECnet] Can we hook this up to a VAX or something?
Verzonden: 23 augustus 2011 19:27
Correct, an RX02 floppy with a formatted capacity of 512 kB IIRC.
Absolutely, on the 11/03 CFE. And any of the UNIBUS VAXen (730, 750, 780,
etc) would directly support an RX01/02 on an RX211 interface. Such
combinations were not unusual and were supported by VMS. I've got a 11/730
with an RX02 drive in the garage. Likewise any of the BI bus VAXen with a
UBA could at least in theory do the same, though by that time 8" floppies
were uncommon.
Bob
Verzonden vanaf mijn draadloze BlackBerry -toestel
