10 Mar
2019
10 Mar
'19
5:57 p.m.
Vern, your memory is either not fully up to date, or else you've
developed a few memory errors over the years. :-)
Anyway, to start from (hopefully) the right end - really cool to have
someone who worked on the code around. It should be a big benefit in the
discussions.
Now, trying to backtrack a few things. I know that Tops-10 and TOPS-20
used the same codebase. DECnet routing is something I can only make half
a comment on. I'm pretty sure I read somewhere about the end-node only
stuff, and yes, it was also related to the DTE. Basically, parts of the
whole DECnet stack is actually offloaded to the PDP-11, and not really
done on the PDP-10 to start with. But I'm sure you can correct me on
that one. But this also relates to the comments below about KL and
ethernet...
Now, on a KS, TOPS-20 never got beyond V4. Any later TOPS-20 development
never came to the KS. That includes DECnet phase IV. So, a KS never
supported DECnet over ethernet to start with. I remember having a
discussion with MRC on this many years ago. He did manage to get DECnet
phase IV up and running on a KS, and it was some kind of project
supported from DEC, but it was never productified. I'm also not sure if
KS ever supported DECnet phase III, but maybe it did over serial lines
or something. There is no DTE on a KS, so this does feel somewhat
speculative to start with. I certainly used KS a lot, but mostly with
Tops-10, ANF-10 and no other networking...
Ethernet on a KL is not done through the DTE. There was/is an ethernet
adapter for the KL, called the NIA-20, which was installed in the same
cabinet where the massbuses were. And installing the NIA-20 removed two
massbuses from the system. There was also the CI-20, which was similar,
in that it also took out two massbuses, and I think was also installed
in that area.
Johnny
On 2019-03-10 17:25, Vern Brownell wrote:
Hi folks,
I?m not sure if this will help. ?I am the original author of much of
DECnet for TOPS-10 and Tops-20. ?The code base is the same for both
OSes, written in Macro, and it was called internally DECnet-36. ?It was
developed with full DECnet routing capability and unless it was
restricted in later releases should be able to act as a full routing
node. ?It supported KL and KS machines. ?Real KL?s were only shipped
with PDP-11?s as front ends using an adapter called the DTE - so that?s
how they where connected to Ethernet. ?KS?s had an UNIBUS adapter, so I
could talk directly to NI adapters. ?So even though a KL was a full
DECnet node with routing, it only really acted as an end-node, since
it?s only connection to Ethernet or DDCMP was through an -11. ?I would
imagine that you could configure a KS with multiple NIs.
At least that?s how I remember it through 38 years of fog.
Have fun!
Vern
--
Johnny Billquist || "I'm on a bus
|| on a psychedelic trip
email: bqt at softjar.se || Reading murder books
pdp is alive! || tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol
On Mar 10, 2019, at 8:23 AM, Supratim Sanyal
<supratim at riseup.net
<mailto:supratim at riseup.net>> wrote:
On 3/10/19 10:40 AM, Johnny Billquist wrote:
As far as I am aware, it was never supported to
have more than one
NIA-20 on a KL10.
Also, since I think that TOPS-20 is endnode only, I suspect it would
be of limited use, had it even been supported.
(Yes, you could have had a second interface for just fallback, in
case the first one broke, but it was rare that you would have two
separate ethernets in the first place, so then it would only be if
the NIA-20 itself broke, but then you'd probably want to power down
the machine anyhow.)
Very likely true. The original KL10 doc clearly says only one NIC is
supported. I just try my best to keep my DECnet and IP subnets
isolated if I can; two NICs help.
I know of KLH10s, but I don't know if any
have a guest account.
Although, I'm not sure what you think you would see from inside TOPS-20.
Never seen or logged into a TOP-20 system ... as you say below,
curious about what it looks like. Anyway, have a Panda release up now,
working through tips for the basics.
But it's a good question if there is any
TOPS-20 machine on HECnet
with guest account. I guess it could be interesting for others to
just experience what TOPS-20 looks and feels like.
I don't have any myself.
Johnny
On 2019-03-10 15:28, Supratim Sanyal wrote:
> Starting from zero with both KLH10 and TOPS-20. Newbie questions,
> surely:
>
> 1) Is there a KLH10 distribution for Linux that supports VDE2? (It
> appears it was at the least added? to the NetBSD target by Olaf
> 'Rhialto' Seibert after being reuested by Cory Smelosky, going by
> https://github.com/PDP-10/klh10/issues/2)
>
> 2) Is it possible in KLH10 to have two network adapters, for
> example, something like
>
> # DECnet adapter
> devdef ni0 564 ni20 dedic=true ifmeth=vde ifc=/tmp/vde-dnet
> enaddr=aa:00:04:00:XX:YY
> # IP adapter
> devdef ni1 1500 ni20 dedic=true ifmeth=vde ifc=/tmp/vde-ip
> enaddr=12:34:56:aa:bb:cc
>
> 3) Are there any KLH10 TOPS-20 systems active on HECnet now on which
> I could have an account to look around?
>
> Thanks
> Supratim
--
Sent from a Compaq CQ61 running Linux Mint Tessa
-
Ain't got no cash, ain't got no style
Ain't got no gal to make you smile
Don't worry, be happy
- Bobby McFerrin