>
>	Umm, OK, but how does (e.g.) VMS get around this?? Perhaps VMS contains
>its own code for console output, independent of the ROM code? Curious minds,
>you know :-))

I've got the KA655 CPU Module Technical Manual in front of me and it clearly
states (p4-82) that virtual mode is not supported. The other consoles *may* be
different but I would expect that in reality they are all pretty much the same.

By the time you have switched to virtual memory mode you should have switched
to your own video or serial port driver. The ROM routines are there just to
let an O/S display something meaningful when it can't get as far as loading
it's own drivers.

The older machines (VAX-11/78x, VAX 86x0 etc.) IPRs which allowed you to talk
to and from the console (which in some cases was a separate processor). Some of
the MicroVAXes may do the same but some certainly don't.

Antonio Carlini                            Mail: carlini@marvin.enet.dec.com
DECnet-Plus for OpenVMS Engineering
Digital Equipment Corporation              Worton Grange, Reading, England