Subject: Re: DECsystem 5500 support
To: Jonathan Stone <jonathan@DSG.Stanford.EDU>
From: Lord Isildur <isildur@guild.net>
List: port-pmax
Date: 12/03/1999 09:29:03
> NetBSD already has drivers, more or less, for all except the DSSI.  (I
> havent looked at the SGEC driver; if it uses the vax-pagetable-walking
> hardware feature, then that's unlikely to work well on a mips CPU.)

true, but it _is_ ever-so-spiffy :-)
> 
> Implementing all of DSSI is a real pain.  In the short term, the best
> bet for 5400s is likely to be a Qbus MSCP adaptor (either for
> RA-series disk, or a Qbus SCSI controller).
> 
> If anyone else has a better idea, dont keep it to yourself :) 

well, i would suggest implementing DSSI!
A while back i donated a DS5400 to a fellow on the list, dunno what its up
to now. Ultrix supported DSSI, and ran on the 5400. I have ultrix 4.2
sources, and have made them available to one or two people on the PMAX
list and the VAX list. The only machine with DSSI that I have is a VAX
6320, and it is in pieces and has no cabinet. So, i cant really  write
anything myself, without hardware to test on. I'd suggest actually laying
out the groundwork of CI adaptor support before doing DSSI since DSSI is
actually a subset of CI. Perhaps over the holidays if i could get access
to a machine to test on i could help. Are any fellow Vaxmongers in the
Pittsburgh, PA area? 


BTW, does anybody have any documentation on the VAXstation 4000/VLC cache
system? :-)

just my $.02.. 
happy hacking,
Isildur