At 02:42 PM 1/24/00 -0500, NetBSD Bob wrote:
>Slowly developing VAXspeak.....

Its logical in its strange sort of way.

>OK, now to some board layout details.  The slots are, I think....
>
>
>8        7        6        5        4        3        2        1
>
><----- other ----------------------->        MEM      MEM      CPU

Correct but more importantly the slots are:

        Q/Q Q/Q Q/Q Q/Q Q/Q 
	+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
       |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
       |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
       | 1 | 1 | 8 | 7 | 4 |   |   |   |
       | 2 | 1 |   |   |   |   |   |   |
       |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
       |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
	+---+---+---+---+---+ 3 | 2 | 1 |
       |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
       |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
       | 1 | 1 | 9 | 6 | 5 |   |   |   |
       | 3 | 0 |   |   |   |   |   |   |
       |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
       |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
	+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+

The first three slots are "Q/CD" which means they are "quad wide"
(connectors A/B/C/D) and the rest of the slots are "Q/Q" meaning each are
dual wide (connectors A/B). Every slot has a bus grant/acknowledge pair in
the A/B connectors. There must be continuity along this bus grant chain for
interrupts and DMA to work. Thus the job of the bus grant card is to simply
"jumper" the bus grant in its slot so that it will continue on to the next
slot.

What this means in real terms is whether or not "quad wide" cards are
compatible in your back plane. Some cards have the bus grant stuff on the
"other side" some have jumpers for it. Generally I've seen three flavor of
cards:
	Dual wide (must be in the A/B connectors)
	Quad Wide using C/D (must be in a Q/CD slot)
	Quad Wide with bus gran (may be in Q/Q slot)

There is a micronote on the compatibility options, however it is written
for people who already know all about DEC stuff so can be quite opaque to
the neophyte (at least it was to me at first!)

>The rest of the cards are half height cards.  Is there an optimal
>setup of them for bus priority or that kind of thing?  

Interrupt latency is determined by the cards slot position. Lower number,
lower latency. Some can tolerate that (DZ11's for example) some can't (some
disk controllers)

>I might expect the QD696 to be in slot 4 top, with bus arbitrator in bottom?

That works, although on my BA23 I've got the DEQNA first (actually I have a
DELQA but its functionally the same card) then the Dilog 696 in next, then
the tape controller third. (slots 4, 5, and 6 in my picture), then a bus
grant, and then the DHV-11 (quad wide).

>Maybe VIK/QTO scsi (is it tape or tape/HD capable?) in slot 6 with

This is TAPE only (Q = Q-bus, TO = Tape Only)

>Is that logical reasonable acceptable or recommended?

Whatever works :-) As long as the bus grant chain isn't broken it will work
but if you are losing interrupts on a card (like the disk controller) it
will be reflected as slower performance.

>The console is a 9 pin db thing on the top right backpanel?
>What is the serial port to the left of that with the dialup
>speed rotary switch, or am I confused about those?

The console port is a DE-9 next to a rotary speed dial and two toggle
switches. The toggle defines boot on power up or monitor on power up, and
language selection. The speed dial is, as expected the baudrate of the console.

If you have a second connector, check to see if it is perhaps a DB-15. If
so then this is where the video used to be connected.

>IFF I make up my own cable, to a standare Wyse sort of terminal
>or a VT420 terminal, is the cable straight through or is transmit
>and receive null modemed?  What are the minimum pins necessary
>to connect (I am used to using only 2/3/7 and jumpering at each
>end as necessary)?

Correct, note that the DE9 is *NOT* wired up like an IBM PC (see the VAX
FAQ for actual wiring) so if you use one of those PC DE-9 => DB-25
converters it won't be correct. 

>There are 4 DB25-MMJ dongles screwed into the backpanel below
>the db9 thing on what I am assuming are the DZQ11 ports?

Yes, save those dongles. They are valuable when using VT3xx and 4xx series
terminals!

>The coaxial video output cable was disconnected from anything in
>the card cage, and rolled up next to the backpanel.  I am assuming
>that was because no video was left in the box (maybe it was a VS II
>earlier, but someone removed the video to make it a server of some
>sort, perhaps, in MVII rather than VSII configuration?

Sure sounds like someone converted it from a VSII/RC to a MV II. I was at a
DEC resller once who had a variety of plastic plates for the front of these
things :-)

>Is there a boot prom command listing somewhere for the KA630?
>That would help me get it going.

Somewhere, but I've only seen it a couple times and haven't boot marked it.

>B/3 MUA0 applies for booting, or something else?

Works for this guy. You will want B XQA0 (or B/3 XQA0) for net booting, B
DUA0 for booting from the ESDI disk.

>What is the prom command for low-level formatting the drive, if needed?
>Test 75?

You need to have it enabled on the DQ-696 card then type 'B DUA9' that will
"boot" you into the Dilog disk utility.

>Is there a show dev command in the KA630?

Nope. 

Its a fun little machine though ...
--Chuck