Timothy Stark wrote:

>Hello folks,
>
>I was searching for some technical manuals and was able find them (VAX 6600
>and VAX 7000/10000) on vt100.net web site (manx page). I noticed that later
>models like VAX 6600 and VAX 7000) now supports full 32-bit addressing for
>larger memory model (up to 3.5GB) and start 0xE0000000 as I/O space.
>
>Also, I was able find other VAX 7000 technical manuals execept I/O system
>technical manual. Does anyone have a copy of EK-7010A-TM (I/O system
>technical manual) for online available? Also, I was able find XMI adaptor
>manual that provides register access for DEMNA, CIXCD, etc. for other
>operating systems like NetBSD, etc. I reviewed that manual and need to find
>two manuals EK-DEMNA-TM, EK-CIXCD-TM and VAXBI system reference manual.
>Does anyone have a copy of them?
>
>Is it possible to emulate VAX 7000 that supports different two processors -
>NVAX+ and Alpha 21064? Because I recently noticed that Charon-VAX provides
>VAX 6000 series emulation.
>
>Thanks!
>Tim
>
>
>
>
Dollars to donuts you won't find a BI SRM, since the BI was a
proprietary bus.

One of KO's worst decisions, IMHO, was declaring the BI to be closed, since
that prevented third-party designers from making lots of I/O widgets
available
on VAXen. In an earlier era, one of the key reasons for the success of
PDP-11s
was the de facto openness of the UNIBUS and the Q-BUS -- and the tons of I/O
widgets, both weird and wonderful, from non-DEC sources. Sigh.

--
Cheers, Bob

Bob Willard wrote:

> Timothy Stark wrote:
>
>> Hello folks,
>>
>> I was searching for some technical manuals and was able find them (VAX
>> 6600 and VAX 7000/10000) on vt100.net web site (manx page). I noticed
>> that later models like VAX 6600 and VAX 7000) now supports full 32-bit
>> addressing for larger memory model (up to 3.5GB) and start 0xE0000000
>> as I/O space.
>>
>> Also, I was able find other VAX 7000 technical manuals execept I/O
>> system technical manual. Does anyone have a copy of EK-7010A-TM (I/O
>> system technical manual) for online available? Also, I was able find
>> XMI adaptor manual that provides register access for DEMNA, CIXCD,
>> etc. for other operating systems like NetBSD, etc. I reviewed that
>> manual and need to find two manuals EK-DEMNA-TM, EK-CIXCD-TM and VAXBI
>> system reference manual. Does anyone have a copy of them?
>>
>> Is it possible to emulate VAX 7000 that supports different two
>> processors - NVAX+ and Alpha 21064? Because I recently noticed that
>> Charon-VAX provides VAX 6000 series emulation.
>>
>> Thanks!
>> Tim
>>

I remember working at a site that bought an old 8650 when 8500s were in
vogue because they could buy third party products for the mass bus.
>>
>>
> Dollars to donuts you won't find a BI SRM, since the BI was a
> proprietary bus.
>
> One of KO's worst decisions, IMHO, was declaring the BI to be closed, since
> that prevented third-party designers from making lots of I/O widgets
> available
> on VAXen. In an earlier era, one of the key reasons for the success of
> PDP-11s
> was the de facto openness of the UNIBUS and the Q-BUS -- and the tons of
> I/O
> widgets, both weird and wonderful, from non-DEC sources. Sigh.
>

"Bob Willard" wrote in message
news:NZidnbou3sULfp3ZnZ2dnUVZ_sGdnZ2d@comcast.com. ..
> Dollars to donuts you won't find a BI SRM, since the BI was a proprietary
> bus.
>
> One of KO's worst decisions, IMHO, was declaring the BI to be closed,
> since
> that prevented third-party designers from making lots of I/O widgets
> available
> on VAXen. In an earlier era, one of the key reasons for the success of
> PDP-11s
> was the de facto openness of the UNIBUS and the Q-BUS -- and the tons of
> I/O
> widgets, both weird and wonderful, from non-DEC sources. Sigh.

Yes, I confirmed that when I researched it through the Internet and found
something. It said that DEC engineers designed VAXBI system for
open-standards but marketing and mangement depts want it as propreitary
instead. Yes, I agree with you about that. I favor open-standard hardware
rather than propreitary devices because they lasts longer and
wider-selection, etc.

How about register-level I/O programming for third-party operating systems
like NetBSD, etc?

Thanks!
Tim

Timothy Stark wrote:
>
>Is it possible to emulate VAX 7000 that supports different two processors -
>NVAX+ and Alpha 21064? Because I recently noticed that Charon-VAX provides
>VAX 6000 series emulation.
>

There is an article in the OpenVMS Tech Journal that explains that they
went for the 6000 series because it was much more straightforward than
the 7000.

In terms of conversion, I think you'll find it's the same chassis and
backplane, but some of the options that the VAX 7000 would support are
unsupported on the Alpha versions (whether as a DEC7000 or as an 8400).
IIRC, the conversion kit was a SCSI controller and internal CD-ROM
drive, plus different CPUs and potentiall memory too. The clock chips
would have needed changing too, as they did on moving from speed to
speed in Alpha processors (the 625MHz had a different clock board than
the one two speed hikes down, for example).